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A majority of businesses (75%) said they won’t require workers to get vaccinated or tested if President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for businesses with 100 or more employees is ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.
That’s according to a survey of 1,000 members of the Society for Human Resource Management, a professional organization, conducted from Nov. 22 to Nov. 30. (The World Health Organization identified omicron as a variant of concern on Nov. 26)
Biden’s vaccine mandate, which was set to take effect next month, is currently at a standstill.
The mandate would require employers with 100 or more employees to require that workers are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or test negative on a weekly basis. It would be enforced through an emergency rule developed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
But a November ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit halted the mandate, pending further review. Now the mandate’s fate is in the hands of three judges who serve the Cincinnati-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and potentially the U.S. Supreme Court.
Some 53% of the Society for Human Resources members who were surveyed are from organizations with 100 or more employees, while a quarter of the members surveyed would be subject to separate mandates for federal contractors and health care workers. The remaining share doesn’t fit the criteria for any of the federal vaccine mandates Biden announced.
Some 13% of organizations surveyed required employees to get vaccinated before the Biden administration announced the details of its proposed mandate for companies with 100 or more employees, according to the SHRM survey.
Amid the tight labor market in the U.S., where there are some 11 million job openings, some employers have been reluctant to introduce a vaccine mandate, fearing it could limit an already limited pool of candidates to hire. That’s especially true during this holiday season.
Case in point: Some of the largest U.S. hospital systems are dropping their vaccine mandates to recruit more workers after many quit or were fired for refusing to get vaccinated, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Workplace vaccination requirements are spreading. Three in 10 workers say their employers required them to get vaccinated, according to a recent survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The 29% rate in November was up from 25% in October.
More than half of employers either have vaccine mandates in place or would require one if Biden’s mandate took effect, according to a recent Willis Towers Watson survey.
As omicron has emerged, some experts say booster mandates could be the next requirement in some workplaces. Meanwhile, job hunters trying to distinguish themselves advertise their vaccination status on their LinkedIn profiles.
Across the U.S., some 72% of adults were fully vaccinated as of Sunday, according to data published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
