Story by 3TV/CBS 5
Employer vaccine mandates are popping up more and more daily. Arizona’s Family spoke to many Phoenix-area employment attorneys who have plenty of clients facing this predicament. Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson all have vaccines protecting you from getting a severe case of COVID-19. Some employers are forcing workers to get them if they want to continue working there.
One of those workers, who wants to remain anonymous, has worked for his company for over 30 years. He chooses not to get the vaccine due to various reasons. “I’ve been granted a religious accommodation and I have a medical accommodation pending for the antibodies and I’m waiting for them to respond to that. Currently, they’ve sent me home,” he said.
He’ll be home until the company says the threat of COVID-19 is no longer high. “I couldn’t believe that they would force somebody to do something like that,” he said.
- “Benefits are generally unavailable to employees who have been terminated for cause. One surefire way for an employer to show an employee was terminated for cause is to prove that the employee violated company policy. If the company has a policy benefitting the health and safety of the general public, including its own employees, they expect employees to adhere to the policy. Failure to comply – different than inability to comply – gives cause for termination.
- “Critics of this application of the law will argue that it welcomes a slippery slope giving employers too much control over the rights and freedoms of employees. Conversely, employees are equally free to choose to work for a company that is more aligned with their personal beliefs and whose company policy will be easier for the employee to abide by.”
~ Olen Lenets, Rose Law Group attorney
