A federal agency said last week that employers can legally order employees to receive the coronavirus vaccine or be banned from entering the workplace if they refuse.
The target came when millions of doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine were distributed across the United States, with the first inoculation occurring early last Monday. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has already published updated guidelines on the vaccine after several allergic reactions in several states.
What are the details?
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Wednesday released guidelines stating that requiring workers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine does not violate the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which prohibits employers from requiring “examinations. doctors such as blood tests, breath tests and blood pressure review “to get medical information about workers,” the New York Times reported.
“If an employer administers a vaccine to an employee to protect him or her from hiring COVID-19, the employer does not seek information about a person’s deterioration or current health status and is therefore not a medical examination, ”the EEOC said.
However, the agency said questions asked before the vaccine was administered could complicate matters.
Although the administration of a vaccine is not a medical examination, questions about pre-screening vaccination may involve the ADA’s provision on disability-related consultations, which are consultations that are likely to obtain information about a disability. If the employer administers the vaccine, he or she must demonstrate that these prior questions they ask employees are “work-related and consistent with business needs.”
What about religious exceptions?
For employees “religious belief, practice or observance prevents them” from receiving the vaccine, the EEOC said employers should provide “reasonable accommodation” to workers “unless it would be an undue difficulty under Title VII of the Act. of civil rights. “
Religious or disabled convictions, of course, would not allow an employer to fire a worker who rejected the COVID-19 vaccine.
“If an employee cannot be vaccinated against COVID-19 because of a disability or sincerely maintains religious beliefs, practices, or observance, and there is no reasonable accommodation, it would be lawful for the employer to exclude the employee from the position of work, “the EEOC said.
“This does not mean that the employer can automatically terminate the worker,” the agency added.