We’ve been waiting all year for someone to mass-produce a COVID-19 vaccine to the point where we all have access to it if we wanted to take it. As we are still patiently waiting for this vaccine to materialize, we might need to consider a hurdle to get over once we get there. Once we have the vaccine, should employers be allowed to force their workers to take it to come back to work?
Returning to the office
Many of us have been forced out of the office and into our respective remote work settings. Working from home has been a significant adjustment for all of those presented with the circumstance. Working remotely can cause all types of snags in your company’s workflow. It takes longer to contact people for small tasks; video calls and instant messengers can hamper communication; and it’s hard to keep track of your staff’s productivity levels. But, is running across a few snags in your company’s workflow enough of a reason to mandate your team to get a vaccine?
Can employers force their staff to get a vaccine?
In the end, it is a vaccine to prevent a virus. It is probably a good idea for your employees to get it. However, your employer should not have a say in how you handle your health. You should be the only one who has a say in what goes into your body. With that, can employers choose to move onto someone else who will get the vaccine? Do they reserve the right to find someone who does not need to work remotely because they’ve gotten the vaccine? Will the vaccine even work for when we do have it? There are a lot of questions that we simply cannot answer at this stage. It will be interesting to see how a lot of these situations play out over the coming year.
For more on vaccines, check this out.
