Employers, You have Another Tool to Help you with Workforce Vaccine Mandates: Insurance Premium Discounts

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
10/11/2021
As employees continue to return to offices, employers around the United States are looking for assistance in how to require and/or incentivize its employees to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.  Some of these initiatives come as employers prepare to confront the executive orders mandating vaccines on some workforces. On September 9, 2021, President Biden announced his Path Out of the Pandemic: Covid-19 Action Plan that in part, set a requirement that all...
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The EEOC Takes On Its First COVID-Telework Lawsuit Under The ADA.

Earlier this month, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed its first lawsuit under the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) against a facility management services company, ISS Facility Services, Inc., due its failure to permit one of its employees to continue working remotely amidst COVID.  The case is EEOC v. ISS Facility Servs., Inc., No. 1:21-CV-3708-SCJ-RDC (N.D. Ga. 2021). Ronisha Moncrief worked as a Health Safety and...
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Guidance Published for Federal Contractor Vaccine Mandate

Vincent Jackson
Vincent Jackson
09/27/2021
On September 24, 2021, the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force published guidelines for President Biden’s recently-announced COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors.  Here are the highlights: “Covered contractor employees” of federal contractors must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 no later than December 8, 2021. People are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after they have received the second dose in a two-dose series,...
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Biden's New COVID-19 Action Plan: What Does It Mean for Employers?

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
09/10/2021
Yesterday evening, President Biden announced a new action plan to fight the spread of COVID-19 and battle back yet another surge sparked by the delta variant.  The national strategy calls on both public and private sector employers to take steps get the unvaccinated vaccinated by mandating vaccines for employees and offering other protections for workers. As part of the plan, all employers with 100 or more employees will need to ensure that workers...
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The COVID Cases are Coming, the COVID Cases are Coming!

Darrell VanDeusen
Darrell VanDeusen
08/23/2021
And so it has begun.  Unless you just arrived from another planet, you know that we’ve been in COVID world for about 18 months.  The lawsuits involving employee behavior, and employer reactions to that behavior, during the pandemic are being filed and decided in state and federal courts.  Here’s one where a physician assistant’s (PA) unprofessional behavior in the early months of COVID led to his termination.  Unwilling or unable to accept...
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Mandatory Vaccination: With Clarity of the Law, Employers are Permitted to Require COVID-19 Vaccination

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
08/11/2021
As Kollman and Saucier’s Vincent Jackson previously blogged, in June 2021, a Texas federal court upheld a hospital’s policy requiring its workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19.  Since that decision was rendered, an Indiana federal court issued its decision upholding Indiana University’s mandatory vaccination policy that applied equally to students, faculty and staff.  The Seventh Circuit recently denied a motion for injunction regarding...
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Federal Judge Dismisses Employees’ Lawsuit Challenging Employer’s Mandatory Vaccination Policy

Vincent Jackson
Vincent Jackson
06/18/2021
In one of the first rulings of its kind, a federal judge upheld a company policy requiring that employees at a Texas hospital be vaccinated against COVID-19.  The lawsuit, brought by 117 employees against Houston Methodist Hospital, bore all the hallmarks of a frivolous case: dubious application of legal doctrines, conspiracy theories, and (of course) Nazi comparisons. It alleged claims for wrongful termination, violations of federal law governing...
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EEOC Updates Guidance On COVID-19 Vaccine Incentives

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
05/28/2021
In updated guidance, the EEOC has confirmed that employers may offer incentives to encourage employees to get a COVID-19 vaccine.  According to the agency’s press release: “Federal EEO laws do not prevent or limit employers from offering incentives to employees to voluntarily provide documentation or other confirmation of vaccination obtained from a third party (not the employer) in the community, such as a pharmacy, personal health care...
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Is An Employee's Adverse Reaction To The COVID-19 Vaccine A Recordable Event For OSHA Purposes?

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
05/21/2021
You know the typical lawyer answer... "it depends."  Vaccines are much more widely available and more and more employees are able to get vaccinated.  This also means more individuals may find themselves experiencing those adverse reactions (especially after that notorious second dose) that are causing missed work.  OSHA has issued updated guidance on when such reactions should be treated as recordable events in accordance with its requirements of...
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OSHA Temporarily Adopts CDC's Most Recent Guidance On Fully Vaccinated Employees

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
05/19/2021
On May 13, 2021, the CDC issued its "Interim Public Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People" which advised that fully vaccinated people (meaning two weeks have passed since receiving the second dose in a 2-dose series or 2 weeks after the single-dose vaccine), in non-healthcare settings, no longer need to wear a mask or physically distance in any setting (indoors included), except where required by applicable laws, rules or regulations,...
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