Can businesses require vaccination as a condition of employment?
Last Friday the Kansas City Star ran an Associated Press story that said the federal government – the nation’s biggest employer – is announcing new testing, masking and distancing requirements for those employees who can’t or won’t prove they’ve been vaccinated.
In an effort to appease the opposition (because that’s got such a great track record of working) they’re saying it’s not a “vaccination mandate.”
In other words (and this is important so pay attention): nobody is going to hold federal employees down and stick a needle in their arm, but if a federal employee chooses to not get vaccinated, that decision has consequences.
The federal government is hoping this will encourage private companies to do the same thing.
But state lawmakers across the United States (who do not seem to be appeased even a teeny tiny bit) have introduced more than 100 bills trying to prevent businesses from requiring vaccination as a condition of employment, which is interesting because I imagine it’s the same group of state lawmakers who also think businesses should be able to pollute the Earth, Water and Sky (who had a big hit with “Shining Star” back in 1975), have working conditions that would piss off a coal miner and once a fiscal quarter, conduct Human Sacrifices.
There are Conservatives who believe businesses should be able to do absolutely anything they want, including Pacts with the Prince of Darkness, right up until businesses want to do something those Conservatives don’t agree with.
So here’s today’s question (along with “That night I went to get takeout food from a Mexican restaurant, just how long was I walking around with my pants unzipped?”):
Can businesses require vaccination as a condition of employment?
According to the Associated Press story, the Justice Department and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have both said there is no federal law preventing businesses from requiring vaccination as a condition of employment and the states can pass whatever bassackwards laws they want, the federal law will take precedence.
Here’s more from Sunday’s Kansas City Star:
Employers must make reasonable accommodations for individuals unable to take the vaccine because of a medical condition or religious beliefs. Still, the power to compel workers to get vaccinated is fairly broad. Hospitals and colleges have long required vaccinations for numerous conditions.
“Employers have a general right to require their employees to take a COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of employment,” said Joseph Mastrosimone, a professor of employment and labor law at Washburn University School of Law.
OK, so that’s three sources saying businesses have the right to require vaccination as a condition of employment and a few minutes of research, which turned out to be the exact amount I was willing to do, indicates they’re not alone.
On the NBC website, Eric Feldman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, pointed out that military members are required to get certain vaccinations depending on where they’re being deployed and a “vaccine mandate” doesn’t mean a person can’t refuse to take the shot. It just means taking the vaccine is a condition of participating in certain activities, like being employed. Refusal is possible, but it comes with consequences.
Now here’s what Juliet Sorenson, a clinical professor at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law had to say in the same NBC article:
“Governments are employers, just as private businesses are employers. Employers are permitted to mandate activities that further the public health — and that includes vaccination.”
So if you listen to people who have actually studied law and know what they’re talking about (which tends to be a huge impediment in social media arguments because they’re limited to actual facts) businesses have a right to require vaccination as a condition of employment. Employees also have a right to refuse; businesses then have a right to fire those employees or limit their activities.
Requiring vaccinations as a condition of participating in certain activities – like working, invading Afghanistan and going to school – is not a new idea.
Even Missouri has required vaccinations
Missouri (State Motto: The Land That Time Forgot) is not exactly leading the charge in progressive thinking – in Jurassic Park they put their dinosaurs on display, in Missouri we elect ours to the State Legislature – but even here in Go-Ahead-And-Marry-Your-Cousin Land, kids are required to get vaccinations before attending school.
Go to the health.mo.gov website and it lists the vaccinations required:
Hepatitis B (Hep B)1 1st dose 2nd dose 3rd dose Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis (DTaP)2 1st dose 2nd dose 3rd dose 4th dose 5th dose Rabies (RAB) 1st dose and 2nd dose Inactivated Poliovirus (IPV)3 1st dose 2nd dose 3rd dose 4th dose Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR)4 1st dose 2nd dose Varicella (VAR)5 1st dose 2nd dose Tetanus, Diphtheria, Pertussis (Tdap)6 Tdap Meningococcal (MCV) Hoof and Mouth (HAF).
BTW: If you skipped reading the fine print you missed at least two jokes which I felt confident about slipping in because I’m one of those people who never read the fine print. As far as I know, I’ve agreed to give away my Firstborn Male Child, the title to my house and signed up to receive a Lifetime Supply of annoying robocalls which would make sense because they seem to make up about 97% of the calls I get.
Anyway…
The point I’m finally getting around to making is the government can and has required vaccinations and we didn’t think much about that before social media was a thing and people like me could say whatever they want and Donald Trump started screaming Fake News every time he didn’t like the Real News.
Do as I say and not as I do
Vince Lombardi who was way up there on the People Who Say Pithy Shit List, once said:
“Fatigue makes cowards of us all.”
(Maybe he was quoting George S. Patton, I don’t know…I wasn’t there and neither was George because he was too busy not accepting the Best Actor Oscar which I’m pretty sure indicates I may have my Georges mixed up especially since I think George C. Scott once came 10 percentage points from hitting .400.)
Nevertheless, let me submit my entry in the Pithy Shit Contest because if you don’t I’m going to get pithed off which is a joke barely worth making, so I won’t charge you for it:
“Life makes hypocrites of us all.”
For instance: it turns out I’m great at solving other people’s problems because telling them to quit eating like they’re trying to win a Blue Ribbon at the Country Fair and start walking like they’re auditioning for a supporting role in Gandhi is easy, but doing those things myself is hard.
You may have noticed this in your own life.
And so might the people who have spent a lifetime telling others that they need to accept the consequences of their actions, but now don’t want to accept the consequences of not getting vaccinated.
That being the case, today let’s close with yet another quote from Coach Lombardi:
“Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”
And if you don’t want to be part of the group effort, it would seem that businesses have a right to say you won’t work.