Publix said Friday it would give a $ 125 Publix gift card to each of its more than 225,000 employees vaccinated against COVID-19The supermarket chain is the last major employer urging its employees to immunize against a virus that killed more than 495,000 Americans.
The gift cards are offered to current employees who submit an internal form and proof of vaccination, the Lakeland, Florida-based company said. Publix said it is encouraging, but employees do not need to be vaccinated.
“We care about our employees and customers and believe that vaccination can help us get one step closer to normal life,” said Publix CEO Todd Jones in a press release. “We encourage our employees to get vaccinated when they are eligible and doses are available.”
Publix operates 1,266 stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, along with nine distribution centers and 11 manufacturing facilities.
No access for many
Despite the incentives, vaccination may be easier said than done for the country’s 3 million grocery workers, because they are not at the forefront of determining who gets vaccinated. Only 13 states – California, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia – have begun vaccinating grocery store workers, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers, which represents 800,000 U.S. grocery workers.
“Critical workers in supermarkets and meat packaging plants are not given a priority for access to vaccines in many states and are still facing delays that further endanger their health,” Marc Perrone, the union’s international president, said in a statement. Simply put, the failures in the early distribution of vaccines under the past administration have left millions of Americans and vital workers defenseless.
According to the UFCW, there have been 137 deaths of grocer workers from COVID-19 and more than 30,100 grocery workers have been infected or exposed.
Carrots instead of sticks
Publix’s move comes two days later Tyson Foods – the country’s largest poultry producer – offered its 12,000 workers up to four hours of regular wages if they were vaccinated outside of their regular shifts or through an outside source. Others who pay up to an extra four hours to take the shots include Aldi, Darden Restaurants, Dollar General, McDonald’s, and Target.
Target, with 350,000 employees, also said it would cover Lyft rides up to $ 15 each way to get to and from vaccination appointments.
Yogurt maker Chobani pays workers for six hours to get vaccinated, while Amtrak spends $ 3 million to give employees the equivalent of an additional two hours’ wages once they show they’ve been vaccinated.
Kroger, the country’s largest supermarket chain, and meat processing company JBS are both offering workers $ 100 to get vaccinated. Lidl, which has 125 grocery stores in nine states, is offering $ 200 to workers who receive the vaccine; Petco is offering its 26,000 employees $ 75 and grocery delivery service Instacart is offering $ 25.
The idea of giving potentially unwilling employees a financial incentive to get vaccinated also extends to the medical industry. In Texas, Houston Methodist plans to give its 26,000 workers an additional $ 500 next month, as long as they are vaccinated.
Employers may generally require employees to be vaccinated because they must provide a safe workplace in which “an individual does not pose a direct threat to the health or safety of any person in the workplace,” said the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.