Santander instituting employee COVID vaccine mandate April 1
Employees were first notified of the mandate in December
Employees in Santander Bank’s retail branches are facing an April 1 deadline to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Those who are not vaccinated by that date face the possibility of losing their jobs.
“The health and safety of our colleagues, clients and communities continues to be our top priority during the ongoing pandemic, and we know that vaccines remain the best
way to protect against serious illness,” the bank said in a statement Tuesday.
The deadline applies to those employees who deal
with customers in the branches.
“We announced this in early December 2021 and have been proactively and regularly communicating with our team members about this requirement, including continued encouragement to apply for open internal positions of interest to them, as well as the possibility of termination of employment for those who are not fully vaccinated by April 1,” the statement read.
In an emailed response to questions, the company said close to 90% of Santander’s branch employees across its retail footprint are vaccinated.
“We expect that percentage to continue to increase in the coming weeks as we approach April 1,” the company said in the response.
Specific numbers of how many employees who deal with customers remain unvaccinated were not provided. In addition, the company gave no details about when or if unvaccinated employees could face possible termination following the deadline.
Santander operates more than 575 branches across eight states, and has 9,100 employees serving 2.1 million customers. The company has 34 branches in Berks, Chester and Montgomery counties.
In its response to MediaNews Group’s questions, Santander said employees must be fully vaccinated in order to meet the company mandate.
“We believe that having a fully vaccinated workforce in our branches will allow us to better serve our clients in a safe and secure manner with fewer business disruptions,” the company said.
A spokeswoman said Santander follows CDC guidelines with its definition of fully vaccinated.
According to the CDC website, fully vaccinated means a person has received their primary series of COVID-19 vaccines. Those receiving the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the second dose. For those who received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, they are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after the first dose.