On Employer Vax Mandates

The nexus between the Libertarian nutballs and the Anti-Vax nutballs may be bringing up some interesting twists - for me anyway.

My general philosophy is that most everything is a matter of where you draw the line.

eg:

• Where's the line between Murder and Homicide?
• Where's the line between Sexual Harassment and pleasant friendly - even playful - interaction among colleagues?
• Where's the line between campaign contributions and bribery?

So I have to ask - if my employer can mandate shirts and pants, why not a mask?

If I can require my employees to observe safety regulations in the workplace, why would I not be allowed to mandate vaccinations?

You show up at work with measles because you refuse to get yourself or your kids vaccinated. You infect the young woman in the next cubicle and her pregnancy ends in miscarriage causing hemorrhage and complications that aren't fatal, but debilitating...etc etc.

Where does my liability as an employer end, and yours as an infection vector begin?

Richmond Times-Dispatch:

Can employers make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory?

Yes, with some exceptions.

Experts say U.S. employers can require employees to take safety measures, including vaccination. That doesn't necessarily mean you would get fired if you refuse, but you might need to sign a waiver or agree to work under specific conditions to limit any risk you might pose to yourself or others.

"Employers generally have wide scope" to make rules for the workplace, said Dorit Reiss, a law professor who specializes in vaccine policies at the University of California Hastings College of the Law. "It's their business."

Rules will vary by country. But the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has allowed companies to mandate the flu and other vaccines, and has indicated they can require COVID-19 vaccines.

There are exceptions. For example, people can request exemptions for medical or religious reasons. Some states have proposed laws that restrict mandating the vaccines because of their "emergency use" status, but that may become less of an issue since Pfizer has applied for full approval and others are likely to follow.

How employers approach the issue will vary. Many might not want to require vaccination because of the administrative burden of tracking compliance and managing exemption requests, noted Michelle S. Strowhiro, an employment adviser and lawyer at McDermott Will & Emery. Legal claims could also arise.

As a result, many employers will likely strongly encourage vaccination without making it mandatory, Strowhiro said.

Walmart, for example, is offering a $75 bonus for employees who provide proof they were vaccinated.

So, it seems like we're charging headlong into a new round of labor vs management scrapes, and suddenly we're seeing something of a break in the stone wall contention that has always maintained that the noble entrepreneur has - and deserves to exercise - all but absolute power when it comes to deciding what does and what doesn't happen in and around his little patch of empire.

But as the Anti-Vax bullshit gets more astroturf boosts from fat cat culture war hobbyists, are the clear-eyed pragmatic authoritarians now saying the workers deserve to have more of a say in company policy?

Or maybe it's more like - "We'll throw them this populist bone and that'll help them get their minds right"

I doubt anyone notices for very long that we've got another hypocrisy problem here. Some clever schmuck will come up with a cool-sounding slogan to smooth it all over. But hey - for a brief and glorious moment, y'know?