One of our home health clients recently asked how to handle a patient’s request for a vaccinated caregiver. While confusion and misunderstanding still seem to rule the day when it comes to employers and their workforce’s vaccination status, Fisher & Phillips published a comprehensive FAQ document with common queries like this one.
Essentially, an employee’s individual vaccination status is “confidential medical information that must be protected and not disclosed.” It may be acceptable to publish a company-wide statement that X% of your workforce is vaccinated. Company employees should be prepared to deflect questions from customers about any worker’s vaccination status. A general statement, such as, “We can’t disclose anyone’s vaccination status but 80% of our company’s workforce is vaccinated” can be bolstered with the measures the company is taking to keep everyone safe.
However, F&P reminds us to be careful because employees may feel pressured by this type of disclosure, especially if they’re unable to receive vaccination. In addition, fear of unequal treatment by the employer or fear their medical status or religious affiliation may be exposed may also heap on employee stress.
Some other interesting points from this article are that, per OSHA, employees should not be treated differently in terms of workplace safety precautions based on vax status. That means that mask mandates in the workplace and physical distancing should be observed by everyone regardless of vaccination status. Lastly, while private employers can certainly mandate vaccination, the F&P attorneys advise us to make sure we can articulate how the vax is job-related and consistent with business necessity.
To be sure, all things COVID are fluid and new variants may void past decisions. Our biggest recommendation is to get legal advice from labor attorneys before you make sweeping reforms and implement COVID-related mandates in your business.