In the wake of the recent pandemic, many people have so many questions regarding their workplace and the virus. With the release of various vaccines to help protect the body from getting the COVID-19 virus, many employees are receiving notices from their employers stating that they need to get the vaccination. According to any Los Angeles workplace lawyer, whether or not a person must get the vaccine for work is kind of in the grey area right now.
When an employment attorney Los Angeles takes a closer look at the law, they can reveal a couple of different things. First, any vaccine recipient is to be given the right to undergo the vaccine or refuse it. This clearly implies to many that employers are unable to require employees to get a vaccine. However, it gets a little more complicated.
Since there have been no cases held before a court on this legal matter, there is no ruling precedence for future cases to go off of. Throw this information together with the fact that the vaccines are so new that they haven’t even undergone two years of testing, and the water gets a little murky.
Peter Meyers, a George Washington University teacher, has been recording stating that the FDA has notated this issue on their Fact Sheet. According to Meyers, the FDA has stated that the caregiver or the recipient has the option to get vaccinated or refuse to.
Any Los Angeles labor attorney for employees will pick up on the legality that people have the right to refuse to get the vaccine. However, it’s not yet clear what an employer may legally do about the employee. Nowhere in the Fact Sheet doesn’t it state that the employee still has the right to work if they refuse the vaccine. This continues to bring up more questions like what the law will stipulate for government employees and employees who work for private employers.
Any Los Angeles workplace lawyer will refer to this time period as the Wild West. Employers who are essentially forcing employees to get vaccinated or quit can face liability issues if that person becomes ill due to the vaccine. However, if they don’t require vaccination, then they open themselves up to a large amount of liability if a customer or another employee gets infected.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has recently weighed in on the issue. They state that mandatory testing has been instituted by employers for decades. For this reason, they are fully capable of mandating the vaccine under the EUA. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is a government agency that handles workplace discrimination claims. Any knowledgeable employment attorney Los Angeles will reveal that it’s very clear where the government agencies stand on the issue of mandating vaccines in the workplace.
While there is a lot of debate over the subject, it’s likely going to take a ruling to be clear about the future of mandated vaccines. Any Los Angeles labor attorney for employees will expect to have a case regarding an employee that was fired due to their refusal of getting vaccinated for COVID-19. The result of the first case will set the likely precedence for what happens for future cases.
