GOP’s sad paradox: Passing mandates to eliminate mandates
The results forthcoming from Florida’s Special Legislative Session expose an embarrassing logic, championed by the leaders of today’s Republican Party, having encouraged the passage of laws that will literally force small-business owners into rigid codes of conduct.
These new and forthcoming laws threaten private citizens with substantial financial penalties for any disobedience, demanding exact conformity by requiring individual behavior to be measured against the arbitrary and accidental whims of the Legislature.
It is now clear for all to see: The leaders of today’s Republican Party are no longer willing to stand tall and proud as a protector of private-property rights, nor as a defender of economic independence. Rather, they have encouraged the Legislature to further burden small-business owners by the enactment and enforcement of needless rules and regulations, commanding specific behavior by imposing the will of the few upon the wishes of the many.
In so doing, they have advanced a paradoxical contradiction: the leaders of today’s Republican Party favor the imposition of strict mandates to eliminate potential existing mandates. It is totally deranged conduct, most often associated with immature, single-issue thinkers. It is certainly not the work product of a group of thoughtful leaders, nor the welcomed discovery of an assembly of community trustees.
At the heart of this painful point of Florida’s history is Senate Bill 20-00004-21B, which mandates that small businesses cannot mandate employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. This ironclad mandate — which prohibits the creation of other ironclad mandates — would apply to small-business owners representing all sizes of businesses.
Further, any small-business owner who violates this no-mandate law that mandates there can be no mandates may be fined between $10,000 and $50,000 per violation ... that is, when a small-business owner violates the mandate and mandates a COVID-19 vaccination mandate.
By seeing the truth, we are witnesses to the absurdity of the Legislature’s logic. Passing a law that mandates that there can be no mandates results in a violation of “at-will” employment.
As a matter of fact, and as a point of law, employment in Florida is “at will,” meaning either the employer or the employee can end an employment relationship at any time and for any reason, believing this to be a spark of our economic genius.
By preventing small business owners from making routine decisions regarding the well-being and safety of their employees we put much more at risk — we are sacrificing sacred relationships between the trusted employer and the valued employee; thus, changing “at-will” employment forever.
The flexibility of “at-will” employment stimulates our high-growth economy and serves as a powerful axiom for successful small-business owners and, too, is a signal of strength for high-performance employees. Both parties are advantaged by working “at will” with greater freedom, greater flexibility, greater choice and greater autonomy.;
To be clear, firing someone is, and should always be, unlawful when it violates our celebrated legal protections, i.e., unfair termination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, religion or marital status. Make no mistake, any termination based on these prejudicial biases is totally wrong and should be vehemently challenged. But Florida’s “at-will” employment independence is most often good for everyone. What is remarkable about Florida’s “at-will” employment is that employers are free to choose who they hire, and employees are free to choose where they work. Talent is drawn to innovation and innovation attracts talent. When small-business owners are “in the hunt” for the best workers possible and when workers are “in the hunt” for the perfect employment opportunity, the one that will best suit their abilities and ambitions, Florida’s current “at-will” employment culture produces huge dividends.
This restrictive law requires the support of Gov. Ron DeSantis, someone who has not always supported mandates. During the debate surrounding the Affordable Care Act, DeSantis, who was then a U.S. congressman, posted on Facebook about his objections to government-imposed mandates, staying in lockstep with former President Donald Trump.
But now, Gov. DeSantis disregards his penchant for personal liberty and seeks to force small-business owners to employ unvaccinated workers against their will. These soon-to-be new laws are an example of blatant big-government interference, which violate the employee-employer relationship. This can ultimately be seen as, “too bad, so sad.”