Should Companies Require Employees to Get Vaccinated?

This could be made compulsory for workers everywhere, from factories to offices and beyond. Mandating vaccines would be especially important to help protect workers in minority and lower socioeconomic communities that have been hardest hit in the pandemic. According to a Pew Research poll, only 42 percent of Black Americans intend to get vaccinated.

Beyond social welfare, there’s a persuasive argument that a vaccination mandate could be considered a workplace benefit: If employees knew that everyone around them is vaccinated, they would feel more comfortable working there.

And it could create a compelling competitive advantage. A service like Uber, for example, would be more attractive to customers if the company said that all of its drivers were vaccinated. The same could be said for Walmart, Starbucks or any other store or restaurant.

Some companies could even require their customers to be vaccinated, which would have a bigger impact on the compliance rate and show genuine leadership. If, for example, an airline said that only passengers who were vaccinated could fly on its planes, it would instantly create the “safest” airline to fly. And it would make employees who interact with customers feel safer, too.

Can a company do that? The answer is: Yes.

The law establishes that both the public and private sector can require vaccinations. The New York State Bar Association, in fact, recently recommended that the state consider making vaccinations mandatory. Public and private schools require all sorts of vaccinations for students. Many hospitals require vaccinations of its employees. The list goes on. (Medical or religious exemptions exist, and should be allowed in the case of a coronavirus vaccine as well.)

In 1905, the Supreme Court ruled against a pastor, Henning Jacobson, who had sued the state of Massachusetts for requiring residents to take a vaccine after an outbreak of smallpox. “Real liberty for all could not exist under the operation of a principle which recognizes the right of each individual person to use his own, whether in respect of his person or his property, regardless of the injury that may be done to others,” the court ruled. “It is, then, liberty regulated by law.”

That ruling, and others after, it have repeatedly reaffirmed this principle. As for private businesses, they can choose to hire, fire and transact with anyone, unless they discriminate based on a protected category.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/12/business/dealbook/should-companies-require-employees-to-take-the-vaccine.html