Can an employer have a mandatory vaccine program,? In short, yes employers can require returning employees to be vaccinated. There are 2 exceptions. Employees that have disabilities that the vaccination could impair further and those with sincerely held religious beliefs. The key word is RELIGIOUS.
For those employees. Employers must reasonably accommodate disabilities and sincerely held religious beliefs and engage in an interactive process, however an employer doesn’t have to provide an accommodation if a 1) imposes an undue hardship or 2) where the employee cannot perform the essentials duties of their job even with the accommodation or 3) when the employee cannot perform the essential duties without endangering co-workers or other even with a reasonable accommodation
Examples of accommodations for disability are remote work or providing onsite safety guards.
For religious beliefs, an Employer can have job restrictions, or job reassigning, or work practice accommodations, however unless the employee asks, segregating them is not a reasonable accommodation.
Employers cannot retaliate against employee who request an accommodation based on disability and religious belief.
If an employee objects on vaccine safe concerns, an employee is not required to accommodate. There is NO exception for this.
Employees should include PPEs .social distancing, keeping meetings small, and have plenty of sanitizer
Employers must fully compensate employees for Covid-19 screenings or temp checks and must keep those records confidential.
