The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Conn. employers dodge COVID-19 vaccine mandates
As Connecticut vaccinations extend to younger age ranges this month, a Census Bureau survey suggests the vast majority of Connecticut employers are not requiring workers to flash a COVID-19 vaccination card to return to work — a policy that is not expressly prohibited under federal law.
In December, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued guidance that suggests employers can request proof of a vaccine with exemptions for medical and religious reasons. But the EEOC document does not state explicitly they can ban workers outright from job sites.
In its own guidance updated the following month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated that states can enact their own laws covering employer mandates on vaccines, without delving into potential conflicts with EEOC rules.
The Connecticut General Assembly has yet to take any action on a January bill that would prevent employers from taking adverse action against any workers who decline vaccines. Bill specifics have yet to be posted online, including any scenarios in which employees are told to stay home as colleagues return to work. The bill is co-sponsored by Rep. Travis Simms, D-Norwalk, who was not available Thursday for comment.
A larger bill addressing COVID-19 labor legislation filed this week does not address the topic of mandatory vaccines.
“The fact that the EEOC didn’t say it’s prohibited from a legal standpoint — that’s about the best thing that you can rely on,” said Gary Phelan, an attorney specializing in labor law with Mitchell & Sheahan, P.C., which has offices in Stratford and White Plains, N.Y. “Unless or until there is legislation passed which prohibits it, I don’t see any basis to say that somehow it’s unlawful.”
Vaccine bounties proliferate
The CEO of United Airlines told employees in January that he wants a vaccine mandate for his company, and polls by LinkedIn, Ipsos and others suggest significant numbers of workers want mandates in place as well for their own protection and that of their colleagues — as many as half.
But other surveys show that large numbers of people do not plan to get vaccinated immediately for COVID-19, many of them on concerns over the compressed window for safety assessments of vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, with Johnson & Johnson debuting this week a third vaccine.
The Census Bureau survey suggests a small number of employers are issuing vaccine mandates, with only 2.2 percent indicating they are asking employees for proof of vaccination before returning from remote working. About 84 percent of Connecticut employers told the Census Bureau they have no mandate, with all but 1 percent of the rest indicating the question was not relevant to their operation.
New York and Massachusetts were slightly above the U.S. average for employers mandating vaccinations of their staff.
Nationally, the health sector dominated those who checked the “yes” box with 64 percent telling the Census Bureau they are requesting verification from workers in at least some job roles that they have received a vaccine.
But Yale New-Haven Health, the largest operating in Connecticut, continues to make vaccines optional, according to a spokesperson for all staff at its health centers that include Bridgeport Hospital, Greenwich Hospital and Lawrence + Memorial in New London. And spokespeople with both the Connecticut Hospital Association and a Connecticut affiliate of the health care workers union 1199 SEIU say they have not heard of mandates being implemented.
As an alternative to mandates, some employers are offering cash bounties of up to a half day’s regular pay to employees who get inoculated. Several are significant employers in Connecticut, including Aldi, Dollar General, Instacart, McDonald’s, Target and Trader Joe’s.
Vaccination policy remains an open question for most small business owners, according to David Lewis, CEO of OperationsInc in Norwalk, which has been providing ongoing webinars in Connecticut and nationally on reopening workplaces during the pandemic. He said his firm is advising companies to avoid any vaccine mandate until clear federal or state rules are in effect.
“If I am a retailer or a restaurateur, it seems logical that I would want to ensure that my entire staff only is allowed to return if they have been vaccinated,” Lewis stated in an email response to a query. “Under what circumstances will someone I terminate, because they decided to not get the vaccine, be able to successfully challenge my decision with ... EEOC etc.? Local lawyers are frothing at the mouth to take a case like this right now.”