As vaccinations continue in the US, some companies are offering financial incentives to encourage their employees to get their shot.
Instacart Inc., the grocery delivery company, announced on Thursday that it would provide a $ 25 allowance to employees who COVID-19 vaccine. It joins others, including Trader Joe’s and Dollar General, who plan to pay employees extra if they get vaccinated.
“Our goal with the introduction of our new vaccine support stipend is to ensure that when the time comes, Instacart customers don’t have to choose between earning an income as an essential service provider or getting vaccinated,” said Instacart CEO Apoorva Mehta in a statement. statement.
Based in San Francisco, Instacart has nearly doubled its primarily gig workforce to about 500,000 to meet the rising demand for online grocery shopping since the pandemic broke out in the US last spring.
Grocery chain Trader Joe’s, which has more than 50,000 employees, said Thursday that it gives its employees two hours of wages per dose for receiving the vaccine. The Monrovia, California-based company said it will also shift schedules to make sure employees have time to get vaccinated.
Dollar General said Wednesday it gives workers the equivalent of four hours’ wages when they receive the vaccine. The Goodlettsville, Tennessee-based retailer said it employs 157,000 people.
A vaccine advisory panel at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control voted on recommendations for vaccine distribution late last month. The panel said grocery workers – including Instacart and Dollar General employees – should be in the second group to take shots after health workers and nursing home residents.
It is up to each state to decide how and when to adopt the CDC’s recommendations. Some states have already been eligible to the second group, which also includes firefighters, police, teachers, correction workers, postal workers and the over-75s. There are about 50 million people in that group.
Companies may require employees to receive COVID-19 vaccines as a requirement for work, although they must make adjustments for medical or religious reasons, according to the federal Commission on Equal Employment Opportunities guidelines.
Most companies are reluctant to impose such mandates, said Sharon Perley Masling, a partner at Morgan Lewis law firm, who advises clients on workplace issues surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. The state of emergency of the vaccine’s FDA approval makes it impractical for many companies to require it, as the shots are not available to most of the population, she said.
Still, Masling said the companies she works with are taking several steps to strongly encourage their employees to get vaccinated, including internal public relations campaigns showing top executives eligible for the shots. Other incentives include free childcare, paid time off, and freebies like pizza delivery and other gifts, she said.
“It’s good for employees, it’s good for their community, and it’s good for ensuring business continuity,” said Masling.
The pressure to vaccinate comes amid signs that some people – even health workers – are reluctant to take the photos, contributing to a slower-than-hoped-for rollout of the U.S. massive vaccination effort Masling said many companies are still keep trying to find out how their staff feel about taking the photos, and some are sending internal surveys.
Concerns about side effects
In a poll last month by the Society for Human Resource Management, nearly two-thirds of American workers said they would likely get the vaccine when it becomes available. Still, 36% said they were unlikely to get vaccinated, worrying about side effects as their main reason. SHRM surveyed employees from 529 American households using the AmeriSpeak Omnibus Survey, a probability-based panel developed by NORC at the University of Chicago.
Scientists say the vaccines have been rigorously tested on tens of thousands and vetted by independent experts, and there are no signs of widespread serious side effects from the injections.
Not every company offers incentives. Delivery app DoorDash, another major platform for gig workers, said it has asked the CDC and the governors to prioritize delivery drivers in vaccine distribution. But it is not going to provide any perks for employees who are being vaccinated.
Target Corp. also has no plans to provide incentives, but said it will make the vaccine free and accessible to its 350,000 employees. Target said 1,700 of its stores have a CVS pharmacy on-site that will offer the vaccine to staff when it is available.
Albertsons, a supermarket chain with 2,250 US stores and 300,000 employees, also does not provide financial incentives. Like DoorDash, it is asking the state and local authorities to ensure that its employees receive priority access to the vaccine.
A separate SHRM survey last month found that while about two-thirds of US employers intended to encourage employees to get vaccinated, only 3% decided to require it for at least some employees. That could change, as 55% of employers said they weren’t sure if they would eventually need it, according to a survey of 955 members of SHRM, an organization of about 300,000 HR professionals.
Bad press
From shoddy absenteeism policies to poor working conditions, many large companies have come under criticism for the way they treated their employees during the pandemic. Businesses ranging from meat processing plants to Amazon have grappled with employee absences and outbreaks that have resulted in temporary closures of their factories and warehouses. There is also an impending debate in Congress as to whether employers should be exempted from legal obligations related to exposure to the coronavirus as more and more workers begin to recall their employees back to offices and other workplaces.
Public perception is a strong incentive for companies to get their workers vaccinated, said Laura Boudreau, an economics professor at Columbia Business School who specializes in labor rights.
“A lot of them have had to defend their reputation in terms of how they treat their employees during the pandemic,” said Boudreau.
Instacart is one of many companies that have lobbied to prioritize their employees on vaccines. The company has also faced criticism, and some unrest among employees, over allegations that it had not done enough to protect its customers – gig employees who travel to grocery stores several times a day to get groceries and deliver groceries to people who order through the app – who do not receive company health insurance or guaranteed paid sick leave.
The company says it has distributed 620,000 free safety kits to its employees, including face masks and hand sanitizers. It introduced a new policy in March to provide 14 days of paid time off to gig workers who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or who have been quarantined due to potential exposure.