Many anti-vax employees threaten to quit when their employers announce they’re considering a vaccination mandate. This shakes the confidence of employers considering vaccination mandates.
What’s the truth? Many employees remain vaccine skeptics; more than a third of U.S. adults remain unvaccinated. But do they quit if told their job depends on it? It depends on the industry and it’s fewer than you think.
You’ll find employees who refuse vaccines for a variety of heartfelt reasons. Some don’t want to have anyone mandate a personal health decision. Others have heard stories about individuals who’ve experienced vaccine complications, overlooking that many have died, become gravely ill, or continue experiencing long-term complications from COVID-19 because the disease caught them before they became vaccinated. Many hospital workers can tell real-life stories of individuals close to death who say, “I wish I’d gotten the vaccine.”
If you’re a medical clinic, or an employer of another organization that works with vulnerable or immune-compromised customers, patients, or clients, you mandated that your employees get vaccinated months ago. Few employees resigned; most reluctantly got vaccinated. Those who left discovered they find employers who welcomed unvaccinated employees.
According to Chiefexecutive.net’s Oct. 19 post, “The experience of mandates implemented so far is that very few employees resigned, were suspended, or were terminated. The Medical University of South Carolina reported five terminations (0.03% of their employees).”
“United Airlines attained 99.5% compliance with its strict vaccine mandate and reported an increase in new job applicants.” What likely led to the applicant increase? Vaccinated individuals look for employers whose enforced vaccine mandate promises a higher proportion of vaccinated coworkers.
The employees who resign or threaten it get a lot of press. We heard via the media that “dozens of Massachusetts State Police resigned due to the vaccine mandate, but later reports found only a single resignation.”
Will employees resign rather than get vaccinated? Some might, however, a recent poll reported in Harvard Business Review’s September issue noted “a majority of employees favor vaccination mandates to improve workplace safety.”
If you’re an employer and want to find out what your employees think, survey them. What you learn may reassure you.
Touch decision
Employers face a hard decision — whether to mandate vaccinations. Many employers have taken the plunge. Amtrack, CNN, Facebook, Ford, Chevron, Microsoft, Citigroup, the Walt Disney Company, United Airlines, UPS, Cisco, the Washington Post, Deloitte, and Frontier Airlines require all onsite employees to get vaccinated.5
Other employers hesitate. They worry they’ll lose employees who don’t want the vaccine or won’t work for an employer that orders them to get a shot to keep a job.
If you’re an employer struggling with this decision, you need to decide which risk you’re more willing to take. In today’s tight labor market, can you handle losing employees who may quit rather than get vaccinated? What risks do you face if you allow a significant number of unvaccinated employees to work for you?
Here’s what you need to consider.
COVID poses an ongoing threat to your employees’ health and your ongoing business operations. What if one or more of your employees becomes seriously ill or a widespread infection forces you to temporarily shutter operations? Employees who contract COVID miss work for ten business days. Unvaccinated employees exposed to coworkers with COVID may need to quarantine and miss 14 days of work.
Due to the Delta variant, employees in the U.S. are at high risk of COVID infection.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID vaccines reduce the risk of COVID infection by a factor of five.
Those exposed to COVID-infected unvaccinated individuals are almost three more likely to be infected than individuals exposed to vaccinated individuals who have contracted COVID. Unvaccinated employees pose a heightened risk to employees with compromised immune systems, which could create employer liability under the Americans with Disabilities Act.5
Employers have options other than the mandate. They can allow unvaccinated employees to work remotely or to get tested weekly or twice-weekly so that COVID-infected employees don’t enter the workplace. They can impose premium health care coverage surcharges for unvaccinated employees.
Employers that fear employees quitting in protest of vaccination mandates may want to test actual employee sentiment with employee surveys. While some employees refuse vaccinations, other employees hesitate to work alongside unvaccinated employees. According to a September 2021 Harvard Business Review article, a recent poll showed “a majority of employees favor vaccination mandates to improve workplace safety.”6
Employers that decide to mandate vaccination need to develop straightforward policies and procedures, including their criteria for granting exemptions. While the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission requires U.S. employees to provide exemptions to employees with underlying medical or sincerely held religious beliefs, the EEOC guidelines allow employers to terminate employees if their unvaccinated status creates an “undue hardship” or would make the workplace unsafe.
Employers that elect a vaccination mandate need to provide employees clear a clear, easy-to-understand reasons for their decision, such as the health and safety of all employees. Since it can take six weeks from the first injection for those who receive a vaccine requiring two injections to be fully vaccinated, employers need to communicate their plan to issue a vaccination mandate at least six weeks before it’s implemented.
Finally, the Biden administration has asked the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to mandate that employers with 100 or more employees ensure all employees are fully vaccinated or submit to mandatory masking and weekly testing. This mandate comes into effect on Jan. 4.
Because OSHA’s focus is the workplace, those who work exclusively outdoors or from home don’t need to become vaccinated unless their employer mandates vaccinations. OSHA hasn’t yet extended the ruling to employers with less than one hundred employees.
Starting Dec. 5, employers are required to provide up to four hours of paid time off for their employees to get vaccinated, as well as paid sick leave for them to recover from side effects. Also starting Dec. 5, employers must require unvaccinated employees to be masked. Employers must also maintain documentation of their employees’ vaccination status. Employers can read the full PSHA requirements at 2021-23643.pdf (federalregister.gov)/.
SOURCES
https://chiefexecutive.net/ceos-should-carefully-evaluate-risks-as-they-weigh-vaccine-mandates/
https://www.wcvb.com/article/massachusetts-state-police-vaccine-resignations/37763636#
https://hbr.org/2021/09/should-your-company-implement-a-vaccine-mandate
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/here-are-companies-mandating-vaccines-all-or-some-employees-n1275808 & https://workplacecoachblog.com/2021/08/employers-requiring-employee-vaccinations/
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7034e5.htm
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.28.21264260v1.full.pdf
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2572798
https://hbr.org/2021/09/should-your-company-implement-a-vaccine-mandate
