U.S. employers unlikely to mandate Covid vaccination for employees: survey

U.S. employers are unlikely to require Covid-19 vaccinations for their personnel and only 7 percent plan to bring only vaccinated employees into the office once vaccines are widely available, according to a survey

The February 2021 poll conducted by employment and labor law firm Littler analyzed data from 1,800 in-house lawyers, human-resource professionals and C-suite executives and found that less than 1 percent currently mandate vaccination for all employees and only 6 percent plan to once vaccinations are readily available.

However, some respondents (43 percent) said it is possible they would change their policy at a later date.

While respondents (64 percent) said they were concerned about legal liability, more employers (79 percent) were concerned about cultural blowback from employees who refuse to be vaccinated or oppose it. Many said that a mandate would be perceived as a civil-liberties infringement.

Still, most employers (90 percent) said they would encourage vaccination by providing information to employees. A third said they would offer paid time off for employees to be vaccinated and/or recover from vaccine side effects.