Employers Can Require Workers To Receive COVID-19 Vaccine, EEOC Says

Employers will reportedly be allowed to require their employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

Employers will reportedly be allowed to require their workers to get the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Vice President Mike Pence was among the first to receive the vaccine, Friday.

Hector Vivas / Getty Images

“The ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] allows an employer to have a qualification standard that includes ‘a requirement that an individual shall not pose a direct threat to the health or safety of individuals in the workplace,'” the EEOC said on Wednesday.

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They added that requiring proof of having gotten the coronavirus vaccine is not considered a “disability-related inquiry.”

“Simply requesting proof of receipt of a COVID-19 vaccination is not likely to elicit information about a disability and, therefore, is not a disability-related inquiry,” they explained.

Vice President Pence, Nancy Pelosi, and Mitch McConnell all received the vaccine on Friday.

“I didn’t feel a thing. Well done,” Pence remarked, after receiving the injection on live TV. “Karen and I wanted to step forward and take this vaccine to assure the American people that while we cut red tape, we cut no corners.”

“Thanks to the great work at the National Institutes of Health, and the great and careful work of the FDA and the leadership of our president and Operation Warp Speed, the American people can be confident we have one, and, perhaps within hours, two safe and effective coronavirus vaccines for you and for your family,” he continued.

[Via]