Grocery chain Aldi said Tuesday it will provide its workers with two hours of pay per hour for each dose of vaccine they receive, offering workers a maximum of four hours of free rest. Aldi also said it will “cover the costs associated with administering vaccines” for employees who want to get vaccinated.
Aldi “ensures that all hourly workers who want to receive the vaccine can do so without worrying about losing their salary or retiring from working time,” the company said in a press release.
Aldi joins Dollar General, Trader Joe’s and Instacart as major US companies that have made similar moves.
General dollar (DG) said last week that it will give its workers a one-time payment equivalent to four hours ’pay after receiving a full vaccination. Trader Joe will give workers “two extra hours of pay per dose to take the time to get vaccinated,” Kenya Friend-Daniel, a company spokesman, said in an email.
Instacart, the on-demand grocery delivery platform, also said last week that it will provide financial assistance to store workers and independent contractors.
Starting Feb. 1, Instacart will have a $ 25 “vaccine support allowance” available for in-store employees and their independent contractors who have been vaccinated. To be eligible, independent buyers must have purchased and delivered at least five lots to the company in the last 30 days.
Corporate policies occur as vaccine launches begin slowly in the United States. To date, more than 31 million doses of vaccine have been distributed, according to the latest CDC data, and more than 10 million people have received the first dose. Federal officials had said 20 million people would have received the first doses by the end of December.
Most states still only vaccinate health care workers, residents, and staff at long-term care facilities, such as residences, the Kaiser said last week. Essential workers, such as retail store and grocery store workers, are expected to be vaccinated in the later stages of the launch, but their eligibility to receive the vaccine varies by state.
Aldi, Trader Joe’s, Instacart and Dollar General are stopping prescribing vaccines for their employees.
Dr Peter Hotez, a vaccine expert at Baylor College of Medicine’s National School of Tropical Medicine, said the warrants don’t make sense right now because of supply restrictions. They would also be “too provocative at this time” and would provoke adverse reactions to anti-vaccine groups.
“Right now, encouraging employees to get vaccinated and creating this leave policy for that purpose is a great idea,” he said, adding that mandates could be revised once more people have been vaccinated and there are more doses available.
Seventy-two percent of current and recent executives at major companies noted openness to vaccination mandates, according to a survey conducted last month at a virtual summit of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute. The general question did not specify whether the mandate would apply to all employees or only to those who needed to work very close to clients and colleagues.
—Matt Egan and Sara O’Brien of CNN Business contributed to this article.
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