WASHINGTON– At the urging of business groups, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has made clear how companies and credit unions can issue vaccine mandates to workers coming back to the office, and what incentives those employers can offer to promote being inoculated against the coronavirus.
According to the EEOC ruling, companies can only require vaccines of employees returning to the workplace. But doing so still counts as a mandate, so companies must make the same considerations that companywide vaccine requirements would entail, like accommodations for employees who can’t receive the vaccine, noted the New York Times in its analysis.
“I do think it’s important that the EEOC addressed this because I worry that some employers were sort of going down the wrong path, and thinking that it wasn’t that big of a deal to have a vaccination requirement,” Jessica Kuester, an employment benefits lawyer at the law firm Ogletree Deakins, told the Times.
A Clarification
The EEOC clarified that employers may also offer vaccine incentives, including enticements like giving workers paid time off to get vaccinated, as well as rewards for employees who show proof of inoculation. The Times noted some companies have also been offering the opportunity to go mask-free at the office as a type of inducement, though several aren’t asking for proof of vaccination, perhaps as a concession to practicality.
As Kuester told the Times, “Are you really going to go around and, when you see an employee without a mask, are you going to run back to HR and verify that that person really was fully vaccinated?”