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Imposing mandate was 'extra hurdle'
Meanwhile, businesses that were reluctant to impose mandates may be relieved that at least for now, they are off the hook, workforce experts and labor attorneys say.
“It's a very tight labor market right now where companies are struggling mightily to find enough workers,'' says Andy Challenger, senior vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement company. "For some of them, this mandate was an extra hurdle they’ll be glad is not in their way of hiring.’’
That may be particularly true for retail, restaurant and hotel companies which are among the businesses that have had the most difficulty finding staff during the pandemic.
Some employers in those industries are reluctant to impose mandates that may make it harder to hire or hold onto workers who do not want to get a vaccine, says Andreas Deptolla, CEO of ThrivePass, which provides benefits administration services for businesses. But those front-line workers face greater health risks if they're unvaccinated.
Starbucks did not put a vaccine mandate in place but it encouraged its 228,000 workers in the U.S. to get fully vaccinated by Feb. 9, the date the federal mandate was to go into effect or start undergoing weekly testing. It also said that workers had to note their vaccination status by Jan. 10.
Now, in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision, the company has lifted those deadlines.
“We respect the Court’s ruling and will comply,’’ John Culver, Starbucks’ chief operating officer, wrote in a message to employees on Tuesday.
However, though the federal mandate can’t currently be enforced, Culver said “we continue to believe strongly in its spirit and intent and we continue to strongly encourage all partners to get fully vaccinated and boosted.’’
Starbucks will also continue paying workers for the time they spend going to get the shots, recovering from any side effects, or isolating if they are exposed to the virus.
Lacking staff to deal with vaccinations, testing
For some businesses, a mandate would be costly.
Mehtab Bhogal, co-CEO of Forever Floral, which sells handcrafted, artificial floral bouquets online, says he doesn’t have the HR staff to deal with the vaccination or testing of his 130 employees.
“It will eat up time, and time is money,” he says, figuring the tasks will consume 150 to 200 hours for his chief operating officer and production manager.
Bhogal says he’s already struggling to attract and hold onto employees because of the worker shortages, and a mandate would intensify those strains. He notes the company is based in Ogden, Utah, a conservative stronghold that tends to view such mandates skeptically.
“I assume I’ll lose 30% of my workforce” if he imposes a vaccine requirement, Bhogal says. “Once you factor in the constrained labor pool, political situation, and our growth rate, it would make hiring even harder than it already is.”
Struggling with worker shortages
Neema Hospitality, which owns 12 hotel franchises in Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, also has no plans to require vaccination, says company President Sandeep Thakrar.
The company, he says, is already struggling to add housekeepers, front desk clerks and others to a workforce of about 150.
“We are strongly encouraging everyone to get vaccinated and boosted but not mandating it,” Thakrar says. About 70% of Neema’s staff is inoculated, he estimates.
Other companies, particularly in the finance and professional service sectors, are taking the opposite path, imposing vaccine mandates in order to entice employees working remotely to come back on site.
“There’s a big desire to try to get employees back to the office,” Deptolla of ThrivePass says. “You have a talent war … Employees can just say, ‘I don’t want to do that.’”
Vaccination rules may vary by region
State and local policies may also affect whether workplaces can mandate the vaccine.
In Florida, for instance, companies that impose vaccination requirements may be at least partly thwarted by a state law that provides exceptions. Workers can evade the requirement by wearing masks. And businesses can’t make workers show proof of vaccination, Miller says.
Roughly a dozen states, mostly in the South, have banned or limited employer vaccination mandates.
Conversely, roughly 20 states have some kind of vaccination requirement for health care workers. Illinois, meanwhile, has adopted the broader federal mandate while New York City has imposed a vaccination requirement for all employees who perform in-person work or interact with the public.
Ultimately, businesses in states with Democratic leadership that have or are likely to pass mandates will be more likely to set up vaccination and testing protocols, says Deptolla. Companies in Republican-leaning states, however, in which there’s more opposition to the directives are more likely to steer clear of them.