{"id":12714,"date":"2021-03-22T09:40:33","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T04:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insurance-advocate.com\/?p=12714"},"modified":"2021-04-19T21:07:11","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T16:07:11","slug":"covid-19-vaccine-employee-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.insurance-advocate.com\/2021\/03\/22\/covid-19-vaccine-employee-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 Vaccine &#038; Employee Safety"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By <span class=\"s1\">Sunz Holdings\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Across the country states are slowly but steadily looking to make the COVID-19 vaccine available to all age groups.\u00a0While many celebrate this development in the ongoing fight against COVID-19, the vaccine poses interesting questions for employers and staffing companies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><b>Can we mandate the vaccine for all employees?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">According to the EEOC which released revised guidelines in December, an employer can mandate the COVID-19 vaccine. This ability\u00a0is given\u00a0through the ADA which allows employers to set qualification standards\u00a0for employment or ongoing employment. One such standard outlined by\u00a0the\u00a0EEOC is\u00a0\u201ca requirement that an individual shall not pose a direct threat to the health or safety of individuals in the workplace.\u201d In other words, if you feel that\u00a0an employee not receiving the vaccine would pose a risk to other employees then you can mandate the vaccine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u00a0It is important to note that there are some exceptions to this rule.\u00a0For employees with disabilities or health conditions which prohibit them from getting a vaccine, employers are expected to make\u00a0alternative accommodations. Only when accommodations pose an\u00a0\u201cundue burden\u201d or\u00a0completely\u00a0prevent\u00a0an employee from fulfilling their job function is termination an option. The situation is similar in the case of employees who\u00a0feel they cannot be vaccinated due to a sincerely held religious belief. It is important to remember that \u201creligious belief\u201d is a broad term and may be difficult to prove.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u00a0If you plan on mandating the vaccine, it is vital that you produce a written policy. This policy needs to outline the following:<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">The deadline by which an employee must be vaccinated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">Documentation required to prove vaccination.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">Deadline by which employees must notify you of their choice not to be vaccinated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">Details on what\u00a0accommodations\u00a0can be made for those who cannot get the vaccine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">Information on what the penalty\u00a0will be\u00a0for employees who are able to get the vaccine and choose not to.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">The contact information of a manager or leader whom employees can speak to regarding questions or concerns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\n<p class=\"p3\"><b>What is our liability if we do not require the vaccine?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Employers who choose not to mandate the vaccine can leave themselves open to potential worker\u2019s compensation\u00a0liability. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic many employers found themselves facing worker\u2019s compensation cases brought against them by employees who\u00a0caught the virus at\u00a0work.\u00a0In these\u00a0cases,\u00a0employees argued\u00a0that their employer did not implement proper safety protocols or failed to provide the proper equipment\u00a0to keep them safe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u00a0For most of these cases, COVID-19 related illness was deemed\u00a0an\u00a0occupational injury\u00a0and therefore covered under the individual state\u2019s statutes.\u00a0While a COVID illness can be deemed an occupational injury, there still remains the possibility that lawyers can argue that\u00a0these statutes do not provide enough\u00a0coverage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u00a0Keep in mind that worker\u2019s compensation statutes will not cover other stakeholders. This could include customers, contractors, volunteers,\u00a0or vendors\u00a0who catch the virus from\u00a0a\u00a0unvaccinated employee.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u00a0Many state governments are looking to institute limited liability measures for small businesses. A recent law passed in the Florida House of Representatives\u00a0added that any suit brought against a company for COVID-19 related injuries would require an affidavit from a physician. If passed, an individual bring suit against a business would need a doctor to determine that their COVID-19 injuries or illness were directly connected to the business\u2019s negligence. While this does provide further protection of risk for businesses, it is important to remember that laws like this\u00a0remain vague in determining the definition of negligence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\n<p class=\"p3\"><b>What happens if someone gets sick from a mandatory vaccine?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">This is the\u00a0dichotomy\u00a0of the vaccine issue.\u00a0In the event an employee was to have a negative reaction to the vaccine they could argue that they were injured or put at risk by their employer. The result could be a workers\u2019 compensation\u00a0suit against the employer and a personal injury suit against the vaccine manufacturer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\n<p class=\"p3\"><b>What can we do if someone refuses to get the vaccine?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">An employee who does not get vaccinated when it is mandatory and the reason is not a disability, medical condition, or religious reason, may be at risk of disciplinary action. This disciplinary action can include termination.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u00a0To protect from liability, it is important that disciplinary action is universal. Actions taken against those who refuse a vaccine must be the same regardless of the\u00a0employee\u2019s\u00a0position\u00a0or work status. In the event that an employer wished to mandate the vaccine for only a specific class of employees, for example only those who interact with customers face to face, a review of\u00a0the\u00a0workforce would\u00a0need to be conducted first. If the review found that a majority of the employees in the mandated class belonged to a protected group, it could be argued that\u00a0the policy causes an \u201cadverse impact\u201d on a specific group and is therefore discriminatory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Keeping employees safe from COVID-19 remains and will continue to be a core focus for businesses and organizations. The COVID-19 vaccine does bring with it the hope for a return to normal operations. However, implementing the vaccine within your business will take careful planning and thorough documentation. SUNZ is here to help you navigate this complex issue. Our Risk Management Center is an excellent resource as you being to look ahead at vaccination.<\/p>\n<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-12714\" data-postid=\"12714\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-12714 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    <\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Sunz Holdings\u00a0 Across the country states are slowly but steadily looking to make the COVID-19 vaccine available to all age groups.\u00a0While many celebrate this development in the ongoing fight against COVID-19, the vaccine poses interesting questions for employers and staffing companies. Can we mandate the vaccine for all employees?\u00a0 According to the EEOC which [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[423,427],"tags":[397,106],"class_list":["post-12714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-423","category-march-22","tag-covid-19","tag-guest-article","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insurance-advocate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insurance-advocate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insurance-advocate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insurance-advocate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insurance-advocate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12714"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.insurance-advocate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12814,"href":"https:\/\/www.insurance-advocate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12714\/revisions\/12814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insurance-advocate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insurance-advocate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insurance-advocate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}