(Gray News) – Employers can require their employees to get a COVID-19 vaccine and ban them from the workplace if they refuse, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in guidelines published earlier this week.
Employers are legally obliged to provide a safe workplace and this may mean their employees must be vaccinated.
There are two exceptions for people with disabilities or “genuine” religious beliefs that prevent them from being vaccinated. The employer should make reasonable accommodations for these individuals.
While the Americans with Disabilities Act limits an employer’s ability to require employees to undergo a medical examination, the EEOC says vaccination is not considered a medical examination.
“If an employer is administered to an employee by an employer for protection against entering into COVID-19, the employer is not seeking information about a person’s disabilities or current health status and therefore it is not a medical examination,” the EEOC said in the latest guidelines.
However, pre-screening vaccination questions may violate an ADA provision on disability-related exams. This means that employers administering vaccines must demonstrate that pre-screening questions are “work related and consistent with the business need”.
The guidelines added that while the employee may be barred from physically entering the workplace for refusing to be vaccinated, it doesn’t mean the employer can automatically fire the employee.
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