A recent Association of Corporate Counsel CLE webinar run by members of the employment law firm Jackson Lewis provided an important look at what employers should be thinking about as vaccination efforts here in the US speed up.
The presentation summed up the various state and federal plans, noting that there remains no federal laws requiring employees to be vaccinated and some states, such as New York have proposed multiple bills that would prohibit employers from requiring employees to be vaccinated, although they are not likely to pass. They also highlighted guidance from the EEOC regarding vaccines, suggestions that haven’t changed since December.
The webinar then laid out four possible options for employers. They are: having no vaccination policy, a soft or strong encouragement policy, and a mandatory vaccination policy. The presentation then went into some detail about the pros and cons of any mandatory policy, which roughly 10% of employers nationwide have already enacted.
Positives include getting workers back to the office more quickly and providing customers with some level of assurance about their own safety. Negatives included the potential for employees to blame the company if they experience adverse reactions and the possibility of workplace friction due to political, religious and personal sentiments that clash with the policy and the potential for organized labor to use such policies as a rallying cry.
Finally, with the increasing availability of vaccines, it may be that more employers opt for a mandatory policy, deciding that the pros outweigh any cons.
