YOUR job could legally force you to get a shot to prevent coronavirus as the release of a Covid vaccine to the general public is on the horizon.
Employment lawyers said that businesses are weighing the possibility of a mandatory vaccine policy as Moderna and Pfizer recently announced that both of their vaccines are over 90 percent efficacious.
Employers generally have the legal authority to require staff to get vaccinated against the virus, with some exceptions.
But workers also have the right to object to mandatory vaccinations under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which allows employees to be exempt if it clashes with a “sincerely held religious belief.”
People with medical disabilities can also ask for an exemption under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Ogletree Deakins, a leading labor and employment law firm, says companies should consider the “politicized” nature of the virus and expect objections should they choose to enforce a mandatory vaccine policy.
“If large numbers of people feel the need to be exempt from wearing a mask (which is significantly less intrusive than receiving a vaccination), then employers likely can expect an equal or greater objection to a new vaccine,” attorneys James Paul, Bret Daniel and Jimmy Robinson told the Daily Mail.
The law firm said it’ll also be difficult to predict how rules around the required shot will work as the pandemic continues to grip the country.
Current case law applies to people working in healthcare, which is considered a high-risk environment, so employees in other sectors could have a harder time fighting for those policies in court, the firm said.
But Covid‘s severity and novelty has also prompted the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to create exemptions.
Earlier this year, the EEOC designated the virus as a “direct threat” – meaning that an infected person poses a “significant risk of substantial harm” to anyone they come in contact with.
A direct threat “‘permits employers to implement medical testing and other screening measures the ADA would usually prohibit,” according to the EEOC’s Covid guidance.
But the EEOC has been “traditionally hostile” to mandatory vaccination programs, the lawyers noted.
Given the uncertainty surrounding the vaccine, legal experts have advised employers to stick with new guidance that will likely be issued by federal and state officials once the vaccine has been approved.
“Imposition of a mandatory COVID-19 vaccine will almost certainly result in a slew of accommodation requests – medical, religious, personal, and ethical—fueled by mistrust of political leaders and the healthcare industry,” Olgetree Deakins said.
“A mandatory vaccination policy may or may not be right for one’s workplace, but as employers explore their options they may want to proceed with caution.”
