The Covid-19 case count has been peaking with the recently discovered Delta variant making headlines. In an attempt to manage the situation, Government & public locations have maintained covid-safe measures, but Fortune 500 corporations have begun doing the same.
In response to the vaccine mandates put in place by many private corporations and government agencies, many employees have begun wondering if such action is legally justified. In short, yes. Employers reserve the right to require employees to be vaccinated, as this qualifies as a condition of employment, similar to a job qualification.
In recent news, American Oil giants Chevron (NYSE: CVX) & Hess (NYSE: HES) have sparked a wave of public controversy, following their announcements regarding Covid-19 vaccination mandates on their employees. The push toward vaccine mandates in the oil and gas industry could influence rival corporations, such as ExxonMobil to do the same. In recent headlines, ExxonMobil has reportedly imposed a mask mandate, but only encouraged vaccines as opposed to requiring them among their workforce of roughly 72,000.
Many Fortune 500 companies have decided to impose strict vaccine mandates and other anti-Covid measures, to ensure a smooth return to in-person work, and the safety of employees. In recent news, Delta Airlines announced that it would be charging unvaccinated employees an additional $200 in monthly health insurance premiums, to account for potential COVID-19 infections, recently driven by the highly contagious Delta variant. Forbes reported that over 100,000 coronavirus hospitalizations could have been prevented by vaccination in June and July, these hospitalizations cost the U.S. healthcare system roughly $2.3 billion. Given the wide availability of COVID-19 vaccines, and the high cost of related hospitalizations, many other corporations may also want to limit their health insurance liability, this could take the form of vaccine mandates, insurance premium increases, etc.
“Those who have a disability or a sincerely held religious belief may be entitled to a reasonable accommodation under civil rights laws, so long as providing that accommodation does not constitute an undue hardship for the employer,” stated Sharon Perley Masling, an employment lawyer leading the COVID-19 task force, at Morgan Lewis. However, employees who don’t meet that criteria and refuse to be vaccinated may need to leave their company.
The U.S. has a total of 36,727,846 active Covid-19 cases, per Google News as of mid-August. Driving the latest wave of Coronavirus cases is the highly contagious Delta variant, accounting for 80% to 87% of all U.S. cases through the end of July, per Science Magazine.
Even in these critical times, the United States stands divided on the issue of Covid-19 vaccinations. In a recent article, Forbes reports that Roughly 50% of Gen-Z employees would quit if their colleagues are not vaccinated. That figure is much lower for Millennials and Gen-X employees, at 40% and 36% respectively. On the other hand, the article also states that “About 44% of workers said that they would consider leaving their jobs if they were forced to get their shots.”
With a 63.5% 14-day case increase in the U.S, seeing as though businesses, schools, and leisure facilities have returned to in-person assistance, is likely to increase the number of Covid-19 cases domestically. Whether or not ExxonMobil decides to mandate a vaccine will be determined relatively soon as more and more companies choose to go down that path.
Sources:
https://news.google.com/covid19/map?hl=en-US&mid=%2Fm%2F09c7w0&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen
https://time.com/5800901/coronavirus-map/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2021/08/23/unvaccinated-covid-patients-cost-us-health-system-billions---and-theyre-not-the-ones-paying-for-it/?sh=2c9b9316df68