Thousands of Kaiser Permanente employees suspended following vaccination warrant

Kaiser Permanente announced that thousands of its employees across the country have been suspended after choosing not to be vaccinated.

The hospital reports that 2,200 of its employees nationwide were placed on unpaid administrative leave as of October 1.

The suspensions impact two percent of the entire US Kaiser workforce.

Company officials say those employees have until Dec. 1 to get vaccinated or risk losing their jobs permanently.

In August, the organization set a goal of September 30 for all employees to be fully immunized.

It is not yet known how many employees have been affected in California. In Los Angeles County, Kaiser is the largest non-government employer.

In a statement, Kaiser Permanente said the following: When we announced our vaccination requirement on August 2, the overall vaccination rate for our employees and physicians was 78%. Since then, we’ve made remarkable progress: over 92% of our employees have been vaccinated – and that number continues to grow. As of October 4, just over 2,200 had failed to meet our vaccine needs and had been placed on unpaid administrative leave across the country. This number is decreasing every day, and as employees respond, they can return to work. Those who did not respond have until December 1, 2021, to do so, to be able to resume work. We hope that none of our employees choose to quit their jobs rather than get the vaccine, but we won’t know for sure until then. We will continue to work with this group of employees to allay concerns and educate them about vaccines, their benefits and risks.