As the COVID 19 vaccinations begin, employers are going to be faced with the desire to get all employees vaccinated. In their minds this will be the only way to get back to some normalcy in the workplace. However this will not be an easy task. Some employees will not want to take the vaccine, for various reasons. Compelling employees to take the vaccine to continue employment, may be legal in some jurisdictions, but a mandate could damage morale, create a toxic work environment, and open the business up for disgruntled employee law suits. Also, the ADA and The Civil Rights Act give employees with medical conditions, and certain religious beliefs, reasons to not take the vaccine. Employers will then have to make reasonable accommodations for these employees to continue to work. Employees who are vaccinated could be working along side of employees who refuse to take the vaccine. This opens up other HR related challenges.
It may be best from a risk management basis to deal with these situations on an individual level, case by case, while keeping eyes on what is good for the business enterprise. The answers and solutions will come, but only if business owners stay flexible and open minded to solve this emerging risk. This is new territory on many fronts and the risk management guidelines to deal with workplaces coming out of a pandemic, will be written over the next year or so. I will be posting more on this as it develops and real situations are solved that I can share with readers. Until next time be careful out there and know your risks.
Posted by: G. Kevin Nemith CIC. CRM President, Agency Leader for CNC Insurance & Pfister Insurance. Hilb Mid-Atlantic Group.
knemith@hilbgroup.com
Top 20 insurance brokers and risk managers in the USA.
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