(Reuters) – German supermarket chain Aldi on Tuesday became the latest grocery sector company to offer incentives to U.S. workers who receive a COVID-19 vaccine, saying it would pay up to four hours of wages to those who choose to have vaccinations. receive.
The retailer, which has more than 2,000 stores in 37 U.S. states, said it would cover costs associated with administering vaccines and implement on-site vaccination clinics at its warehouse and office locations.
Dollar General Corp last week offered front-line workers a similar incentive after they received the vaccine, while grocery company Instacart said it would pay $ 25 to more than half a million gig workers if they choose to take time off to get vaccinated.
Aldi said it was working with officials in the United States to give employees priority access to the vaccine, and joined other companies, including Amazon.com Inc and Uber Technologies Inc, lobbying to get employees closer to the front of the line. for vaccinations.
However, conflicting national and local guidelines about how shots will be administered and which workers will navigate vaccine rollouts confusing businesses and industry associations.
Most companies worldwide have so far remained silent on whether they would try to provide doses for employees, even though some Indian companies are considering buying COVID-19 injections directly for their employees once the vaccines are commercially available.
Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M.