Enticing employees to get the jab

Although it is legal to require vaccines at most U.S. companies, employers could face lawsuits if they compel workers to get inoculated. So, encouraging workers to get the jab is the safer business approach.

Such is the key message from “The Future of Work: How to navigate your organization’s return (or not) to the workplace,” a webinar hosted earlier this month by Ragan Consulting Group.

“On the ground, the trend we’re seeing is strongly encouraging, not mandating vaccines,” says Laura A. Elkayam, an associate in the Chicago office of law firm Much Shelist. “And doing whatever you can to facilitate vaccinations including paid time off, even if not required by law.”

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has said employers can mandate the vaccine, but emergency use statutes – which the Food and Drug Administration used to grant public access to the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines – allow people to refuse products administered on such a basis. As a possible sign of what’s to come, a correctional officer has sued a New Mexico prison for its “mandatory COVID-19 vaccination directive” after refusing to follow it and receiving a write-up stating he must comply.