In December, when the United States was about to begin its mass vaccination campaign with Covid-19, companies and industry groups were busy lobbying federal and state officials for the vaccine’s priority. Employers like Amazon and Lyft and interest groups like the North American Meat Institute and the National Retail Federation were arguing that their workers would be next in line. Vaccination guidelines vary from state to state, but some have started offering injections to frontline employees in general, such as retail employees and food service personnel. This recent expansion caused corporate America to rush to announce employee vaccination initiatives.
Under the guidance of the United States Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC), employers can require workers to receive Covid-19 vaccination unless they have a disability or religious beliefs that prohibit them from being vaccinated. Few companies, however, are willing to impose such stringent requirements. At an employee’s town hall, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said he intended to make photos mandatory for employees, but that is the exception. Other major carriers, including American, Delta and Southwest, have yet to commit to that decision.
Instead, most employers are “strongly encouraging” voluntary vaccination and are working to launch programs to educate workers about the vaccine, its benefits and safety. Uber, for example, has launched features in its app that allow drivers residing in states that are vaccinating transportation workers to confirm their essential worker status.
Recently, more companies are offering paid incentives: McDonald’s, Trader Joe’s, Starbucks and Dollar General, to name a few, are offering workers four extra hours of pay to receive their two doses of vaccine. The supermarket chains Lidl and Kroger are giving bonuses of $ 200 and $ 100, respectively, to vaccinated workers; Texas’ largest hospital system, which employs 26,000 people, is offering $ 500 of “hope bonus”. Target’s part-time and full-time employees will receive $ 15 in Lyft tour credit each way to and from the vaccination site, plus four hours of extra pay.
These corporate initiatives are similar to what companies started offering during the election years – paying workers to vote or even volunteering at the polls. These measures are likely to generate a positive media for employers, but they are also largely beneficial in encouraging vaccination among the public. Still, some large corporations, such as Walmart and Amazon, have remained silent on offering incentives, although Amazon plans to administer vaccines on site in certain locations.
The decentralized nature of vaccine implementation made it difficult to plan ahead of time, compared to reorganizing employee schedules around a date defined as election day. Most companies expect employees to schedule and receive footage at their own time. In some cases, like McDonald’s, a corporation supervises only corporate employees or those in its own restaurants, not its franchises. This severely limits the number of workers who could receive the vaccine’s benefits.
“It all comes down to having flexible policies so people have time off if they need it or have a moderate workload,” Rebecca Reindel, director of health and safety at the AFL-CIO working group, told USA Today.
Employers are realizing that monetary incentives – and even assistance with vaccine scheduling – can serve as a good motivation. A survey by the incentive solutions company Blackhawk Network found that more than two-thirds of the 1,000 adult respondents would accept some form of monetary compensation to be vaccinated. However, some labor lawyers are hesitant to endorse the practice, as it can be interpreted as coercive or even discriminatory for those who are clinically unable to get vaccines. “The law is very uncertain here. … Even when we have the best of intentions, we have to be aware that there are other people whose rights can be trampled on, ”Valdi Licul, a civil rights lawyer and partner at Wigdor LLP, told Bloomberg News.
The question of who should have the vaccine priority first – and whether employers should demand or encourage it – is a complicated one. As Emily Stewart previously reported to Recode, Covid-19 is a significant threat to the corporate workforce, but emergency vaccine authorization can make it complicated for employers: “Employers have an obligation to maintain a safe and healthy workforce, including reducing infection procedures, but mandating a vaccine comes with special obligations in terms of liability. “
Some unions, like the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, are asking employers and states to not only prioritize workers in the vaccination process, but also to implement measures such as dangerousness or additional paid leave. The categorization of which jobs are “essential” or which are worth prioritizing concerns especially self-employed or contract workers, who are not supported by companies. The Los Angeles Times reported that health professionals who do not work directly in hospitals are begging to be considered a priority group in California, as they still interact with patients. Workers hired by large corporations also fear being left behind in the deployment, despite working in high-risk environments.
Now that the United States has purchased enough doses to vaccinate all Americans, it remains to be seen how – and if – employers will take a more active role in distributing the vaccine to employees.