Vaccination push stirs uncertainty
Biden mandate’s announcement leaves employers asking questions about implementation
Large and midsize Connecticut companies are looking ahead with plenty of questions after President Joe Biden said all organizations employing 100 people or more must require vaccinations against COVID-19 or require weekly tests for the infection.
Biden’s declaration on Thursday stunned the world at a time when the nation is divided over vaccine mandates, and left at least two huge questions: How will that happen? Can he do that?
Aside from those big questions, managers, lawyers and executives in Connecticut wondered on Friday about details. Would employers face fines? Or would companies be forced to terminate workers who do not comply? Would those workers qualify for unemployment compensation?
“I did not see it coming,” said David Lewis, CEO of the human resources advisory firm OperationsInc in Norwalk, who called Biden’s move “a well intentioned effort at driving more of those who are not vaccinated to get vaccinated.”
But Lewis said the announcement was “poor in execution and planning that left 100 questions, a fair amount of confusion and the likelihood that none of this will matter for some time until they work it out through whatever court challenges surface.”
In addition to larger companies, any organization that sells goods or services to the federal government must adhere to the new rule.
“Let’s see how it works out — had the same thing with state employees,” Gov. Ned Lamont said on Friday. “Obviously if everybody is vaccinated that’s the best. But if I lose a third of my corrections officers because they don’t want to get vaccinated, that doesn’t work, so that’s the balance
“It’s not clear yet — we’ll have to wait for OSHA guidance — on whether the rules apply to all employees or just those in company facilities. There isn’t necessarily any legal precedent, which often means this may be destined to go quickly to the Supreme Court.”
you’ve got to reach between mandates and just really giving people strong incentives to do the right thing.”
As for the rules in Biden’s declaration, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is working up initial guidance for expected release next week on how employers should implement the order. Two of every three U.S. workers, or about 100 million people in all, would be affected by the requirements, if enacted as Biden articulated on Thursday.
Biden promoted the move as necessary to lower the infection rate for COVID. The White House suggested the federal government has already established a legal precedent by requiring nursing home workers to get vaccinated if they treat patients covered by Medicare or Medicaid.
Under the new rules, other medical workers will be required to get vaccinated or weekly testing including home health workers.
Connecticut has among the highest vaccination rates in the nation, with nearly 2.9 million residents having received at least one dose according to the latest update Thursday.
“It’s not clear yet — we’ll have to wait for OSHA guidance — on whether the rules apply to all employees or just those in company facilities,” said Gary Phelan, an employment law attorney with Mitchell & Sheahan, which has a Stratford office. “There isn’t necessarily any legal precedent, which often means this may be destined to go quickly to the Supreme Court.”
A spokesperson for General Dynamics, whose Electric Boat subsidiary in Groton is one of the largest work sites in Connecticut, said the company is awaiting specifics and that it will comply
Gary Phelan, employment law attorney with Mitchell & Sheahan