The reason is that they want to reopen without interruption from a spike in infections or internal dissent. While most will not mandate inoculation, it is prudent to expect that those who are unvaccinated or unwilling to report their status will be penalized financially and professionally - and that the courts will back businesses up. JL
Jacob Gershman, Chip Cutter and Orla McCaffery report in the Wall Street Journal:
A federal judge in Texas ruled that a major hospital system can require its employees to be vaccinated against Covid-19, dismissing a lawsuit brought by workers who claimed the mandate unlawfully forced them to be human “guinea pigs.” Now, companies are stepping up the pressure on workers to get vaccinated. Some of those efforts are taking a more assertive and urgent tone. While most employers haven’t ordered staff to get vaccinated, many are asking workers to report their vaccination status or are implementing policies that restrict the activities of unvaccinated workers. Whether employees are vaccinated could determine when they regain access to corporate offices at many companies.A federal judge in Texas ruled that a major hospital system in Houston can require its employees to be vaccinated against Covid-19, dismissing a lawsuit brought by workers who claimed the mandate unlawfully forced them to be human “guinea pigs.”
U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes on Saturday upheld the Houston Methodist system’s vaccine requirement, the first time a federal court has ruled on the legality of such an employer mandate due to the pandemic, according to the plaintiffs’ attorney.
In late March, Houston Methodist became the first major healthcare system in the U.S. to require Covid-19 vaccinations for its existing employees and new hires. The system, which employs more than 26,000 people, says employee vaccinations are essential to keeping patients safe.
More than 100 of its workers filed suit against the requirement in late May. They contended that the federally approved vaccines are experimental and dangerous and likened Houston Methodist’s requirement to Nazi medical experiments on concentration-camp prisoners during the Holocaust. Among other claims, the suit said the system’s policy violated a federal law governing the protection of “human subjects.”
In a five-page ruling, Judge Hughes said the Nazi comparison was “reprehensible” and that the lawsuit’s legal assertions misinterpreted the law and completely lacked merit.
“This is not coercion. Methodist is trying to do their business of saving lives without giving them the Covid-19 virus,” he wrote. “It is a choice made to keep staff, patients and their families safer.” He wrote that the plaintiffs can freely choose to accept or refuse a vaccine, and if they choose the latter, they can work elsewhere.
Jared Woodfill, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said they plan to appeal the ruling and that his clients are “committed to fighting this unjust policy.”
Dr. Marc Boom, president and chief executive of Houston Methodist, said the ruling allows the system to “continue our focus on unparalleled safety, quality, service and innovation.”
Federal health authorities have recommended that everyone 12 years and older get vaccinated. The Pfizer - BioNTech mRNA vaccine is available for children as young as 12, while Moderna’s mRNA vaccine and Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine remain limited to people 18 and older.
More than half the U.S. population is at least partially vaccinated, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, though polling has shown that many unvaccinated people are still hesitant. The vaccines all received emergency-use authorization as a safe and effective inoculation against the virus.
Houston Methodist’s policy allowed employees to request exemptions based on a documented medical condition or a conflict with their sincerely held religious beliefs. It also allowed pregnant employees to delay their shots.
The policy aligned with updated guidance from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued last month that said employers could require workers entering a workplace to be vaccinated.
In job postings, some employers have started to mandate shots before candidates are hired, but it is unclear how many companies have adopted mandates like Houston Methodist’s.
The system said it has suspended without pay 178 full-time or part-time employees for failing to comply with its requirement, with about a week remaining before the deadline. Of these employees, 27 are partially vaccinated.
The system said more than 600 of its workers received a medical or religious exemption or were granted deferrals for pregnancy and other reasons.
Among those suspended was the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, Jennifer Bridges, a registered nurse at Houston Methodist Baytown Hospital who contracted Covid-19 while treating patients during the height of the pandemic, according to her attorney.
Companies are stepping up the pressure on workers to get vaccinated—not necessarily with mandates but with strong nudges.
For months, many employers have attempted to coax workers into receiving a Covid-19 vaccine. Companies dangled cash, time off and other prizes to encourage vaccinations. Executives made personal appeals in town-hall meetings and internal memos.
Now, some of those efforts are taking a more assertive and urgent tone. While most employers haven’t flat-out ordered staff to get vaccinated, many are asking workers to report their vaccination status or are implementing policies that restrict the activities of unvaccinated workers.
Unlike the first wave of corporate efforts—which focused more on getting front-line workers and essential staffers at retailers, hospitals and airlines vaccinated—the latest push affects more professionals at banks, law firms and similar businesses. Some companies say they want reassurance that the majority of their workers are vaccinated before broadly reopening offices.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS -0.46% last week ordered its U.S. employees to disclose in an internal portal whether they had received the vaccine. The Wall Street firm, which hasn’t mandated vaccines, has told staff that fully vaccinated employees who have registered their status can work without masks in its offices. Others will still have to wear masks at all times except at their desks. Other banks, including Morgan Stanley MS -0.25% and Wells Fargo WFC -1.17% & Co., have asked employees to voluntarily register their vaccination status.
Whether employees are vaccinated could determine when they regain access to corporate offices and campuses at many companies. The technology giant Salesforce.com Inc. CRM +0.23% is initially inviting fully vaccinated workers who have disclosed their status to come back to offices in places such as San Francisco and New York, in groups of about 100 people at a time. Salesforce has eschewed a vaccine mandate, though executives have spent recent months encouraging people to get them. “We’re not being shy about it,” said Brent Hyder, Salesforce’s chief people officer.
Companies are getting cover to ratchet up the pressure from new guidance from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which recently said U.S. employers can require all workers entering a workplace to be vaccinated against Covid-19, though they need to provide reasonable accommodations for those who are unvaccinated because of a disability or religious belief, the EEOC said.
Even so, some employers have met resistance. The Houston Methodist hospital network recently suspended 178 employees who didn’t meet the hospital system’s early June deadline to be fully vaccinated, according to an internal email shared with staffers. Those employees could face termination if they don’t comply, hospital officials have said.
A group of more than 100 Houston Methodist employees recently filed a lawsuit challenging the mandate. Their complaint argued that the hospital network “is forcing its employees to be human ‘guinea pigs’ as a condition for continued employment.” A federal judge on Saturday dismissed the suit.
Hospital leaders, who say about 25,000 of the network’s roughly 26,000 employees are now vaccinated, have held fast on the mandate despite the backlash. “As the first hospital system to mandate Covid-19 vaccines we were prepared for this,” Dr. Marc L. Boom, the network’s chief executive, said in his email to staff last week. “The criticism is sometimes the price we pay for leading medicine.”
Companies are generally within their legal rights to ask employees if they have been vaccinated, employment lawyers say, and employers are using a range of tools to do so. Payroll processor Automatic Data Processing Inc. ADP -0.06% plans to soon offer a feature in a digital, return-to-office dashboard that will allow workers to upload images of their vaccination cards—if employers request them—and to note whether they have been fully or partially vaccinated, or not at all.
“What employers are looking for is how do I delineate: How do I know who’s in what bucket?” said David Palmieri, a division vice president at ADP.
‘We treat people like grown ups.’
A number of companies are relying on the honor system. At Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., vaccinated employees have started to return to the company’s Springfield, Mass., headquarters to attend in-person meetings on a case-by-case basis and can remove their masks, CEO Roger Crandall said. The company plans to open some offices on a voluntary basis for fully vaccinated staff later this month. A broader-scale return is planned for the fall.
Executives debated asking people to upload proof of vaccinations, Mr. Crandall said, but decided against it, feeling that employees could be trusted to operate within health guidelines and company policies. “We treat people like grown ups,” he said.
Minneapolis law firm Lockridge Grindal Nauen in March mandated that its 100-person staff get vaccinated, barring an exemption for medical or religious reasons. Employees weren’t asked to provide proof but to notify the firm’s human resources director when they were fully vaccinated to help determine when it could reopen its offices or schedule more in-person gatherings, said Susan E. Ellingstad, a partner at the firm. Ms. Ellingstad said there was no resistance, and all employees have complied.
“We’re never going to get past this until we have enough people vaccinated,” Ms. Ellingstad said. “Employers have a role to play in this.”
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