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The Aldi grocery chain said on Tuesday it would provide its hourly workers with two hours of pay for each dose of vaccine they receive, giving workers up to four hours of paid leave in total. Aldi also said it will “cover the costs associated with administering the vaccines” for employees who wish to be vaccinated.
Aldi “is ensuring that all hourly workers who wish to receive the vaccine can do so without fear of losing their pay or being absent from work,” the company said in a press release.
Aldi joins Dollar General, Trader Joe’s and Instacart as large US companies that have taken similar action.
General dollar (DG) said last week he would give his workers a one-time payment equivalent to four hours of pay after receiving a completed vaccination. Trader Joe’s will give workers “2 extra hours of regular pay per dose for taking the time to get vaccinated,” Kenya Friend-Daniel, a company spokesperson, said in an email.
Instacart, the on-demand grocery delivery platform, also said last week that it would provide financial assistance to its in-store employees and independent contractors.
Effective February 1, Instacart will have a $ 25 “vaccine support allowance” available to in-store employees and its independent contractors who have been vaccinated. To be eligible, its independent buyers must have purchased and delivered at least five lots for the business in the last 30 days.
Corporate policies come as vaccine rollout slowly begins in the United States. More than 31 million doses of the vaccine have so far been distributed, according to the latest data from the CDC, and more than 10 million people have received their first dose. Federal officials said 20 million people would have received their first doses by the end of December.
Most states still only vaccinate healthcare workers, residents and staff in long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes, Kaiser said last week. Essential workers, such as retail and grocery store workers, are expected to be vaccinated in later phases of the deployment, but their eligibility to receive the vaccine varies by state.
Aldi, Trader Joe’s, Instacart and Dollar General all stop before making compulsory vaccination of their employees.
Dr Peter Hotez, a vaccine expert at the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, said the mandates didn’t make sense at the moment due to supply constraints. They would also be “too provocative at this point” and cause negative reactions among anti-vaccine groups.
“At the moment, encouraging employees to get vaccinated and creating this leave policy for that purpose is a great idea,” he said, adding that the terms could be reviewed once new people have been vaccinated. and that other doses would be available.
Seventy-two percent of current and recent CEOs of large companies have reported an openness to immunization mandates, according to a survey last month at a virtual summit hosted by the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute. The general question did not specify whether the mandate would apply to all employees or only to those who had to work near customers and colleagues.
– CNN Business’s Matt Egan and Sara O’Brien contributed to this article.
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