Palm Beach County employers take stock of Biden vaccine order
A Biden administration requirement that businesses with more than 100 workers verify that their employees are either vaccinated or test negative weekly for COVID-19 comes as many Palm Beach County companies struggle to fill open positions.
Of dozens of businesses surveyed by the Palm Beach Post on Friday, a day after President Joe Biden laid out the new requirement, only a few issued statements or offered public comment on their plans to comply with the incoming directive from the U.S. Labor Department.
“It’s a polarizing issue, and I am sure each company really doesn’t know the right answer or what side of history they want to be on at this point,” said Glen Calder, CEO of Summit Public Relations in Boca Raton, which represents numerous area companies. “They are probably taking the temperature of their management and employee base and don’t want to make the wrong move.”
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Companies with fewer than 100 employees are exempt from the order, and some large companies such as United Airlines, Disney, Tyson Foods and “even Fox News” already have vaccine requirements, Biden pointed out Thursday in explaining the rule.
Businesses that do not comply could face fines up to $14,000, a senior administration official told USA TODAY, and the regulations will be enforced by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Employers hit with vaccine mandate as they struggle to hire workers
Calder said vaccine mandates could frighten away an already scarce pool of job applicants or possibly spook existing employees in a market where employers are already struggling to retain workers.
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Indeed, the new federal requirement was announced only one day before CareerSource Palm Beach County and the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity announced that, for the first time since 2005, the county has more job openings than unemployed workers. That means even tougher competition between businesses trying to attract and retain employees.
Kast Construction, which has about 260 employees in Palm Beach County, said it is seeing a split between employees who are happy about the new regulations and those who are not. Senior Vice President Dave DeMay said he is just trying to stay neutral.
“We build buildings,” he said. “We don’t want to get into the political side of the vaccine.”
Even so, DeMay said his initial reaction to the new regulation is that he is "OK" with it, but he questions how the government is going to enforce it and how much effect it will have on the spread of COVID if companies with fewer than 100 employees are not required to comply as well.
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“So, companies with less than 100 employees aren’t going to get the virus?" he said.
A spokeswomanA. Duda & Sons, Inc., an agricultural company with about 1,000 employees in Palm Beach, Brevard, Seminole, Highlands, Hendry and Glades counties, said the company has already been doing everything possible to make it easy for employees to get vaccinated.
“We have encouraged our employees to get vaccinated and offered them paid time off to get vaccinated and offered our agricultural workers access to mobile vaccinations,'' said Kathleen Conley, the company's senior communications specialist.
But how employees will feel about mandatory vaccinations or testing, she does not know.
"It is way to early to know exactly how this will impact our company, but we are talking now and into next week," Conley said.
Weekly COVID testing might middle ground to preserve peace in workplace
Some employers will no doubt be pleased by the new regulations, West Palm Beach labor and employment attorney Allison Oasis Kahn said in a statement. But others might fear a “mass exodus” of unhappy workers. For the latter, Khan pointed out, there is always the option of weekly testing.
“For employees vehemently against the vaccine though, a workplace subject to the (new rules) where employees can continue to work subject to at least weekly testing will still be preferable to a mandatory vaccination policy where employers can terminate employees for failing to get vaccinated,” she wrote.
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Most companies have not had enough time to wrap their heads around the new regulations and are still in the process of hashing out details, said Myila Young, a board member with the Florida Public Human Resources Association. She added one question they will need to sort out is whether it will be supervisors or human resource departments that will shoulder the responsibility of ensuring compliance with the new rules
“We’ve discussed it at our conferences, but no one has come to a conclusion,” she said.
And there are other unanswered questions, too.
“If someone gets a vaccination and has to be out of work, does that get covered by workers comp if we've mandated it as an employer?” Young said.
Can employers ask vaccine status given 'really sensitive' regard for medical privacy?
Employers don’t really understand what they are allowed to ask employees when it comes to vaccinations, in addition, and there must be clear rules about what questions are allowed if companies are going to be able to comply with the new law, she said.
“Any medical information is really sensitive,” she said. “There is just so much uncertainty and we are trying to take it step-by-step.”
The new mandate also includes most federal government workers and all nursing home facilities and hospitals that receive Medicare and Medicaid funds.
Baptist Health South, which operates Boca Regional and Bethesda East and West medical centers in Boynton Beach, in August became the first and only private hospital system in Palm Beach County to require its workers to get vaccinated.
“We recognize that in order to beat this pandemic together and fully protect our patients, employees and community, we all need to be vaccinated,” Baptist Health president and COO Bo Boulenger said in a statement.
As part of a federal mandate, the VA Medical Center in Riviera Beach since July has been requiring its employees to get shots.
Officials at most hospitals in Palm Beach County on Friday declined comment on Biden’s decision to require healthcare workers to get vaccinated at any facility that receives Medicare or Medicaid funding.
HCA Healthcare, which operates JFK medical centers in Atlantis and West Palm Beach and Palms West Hospital in Royal Palm Beach, said it is reviewing the details of Biden’s directive.
With medical centers in 21 states, HCA officials said they have already been forced to require vaccinations for hospital workers in parts of the country where shots are mandatory.
The county's tax-funded Health Care District, which operates Lakeside Medical Center in Belle Glade and health clinics throughout the county, estimated that about 56% of its workforce is fully vaccinated.
"As we learn more specifics, we continue to encourage staff and all who are eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as possible to protect themselves, their families and the community," it said in a statement.
Unions, such as SEIU, which represents nurses at several area hospitals, said they, too, are evaluating Biden’s order.
National Nurses United, which represents nurses at hospitals in Central Florida and on the Gulf Coast, praised Biden for taking further steps were to stop the spread of the deadly and highly contagious delta variant.
“We strongly believe all eligible people should be vaccinated, while respecting the need for medical and religious accommodations,” it said in a statement. “The Biden Administration is to be applauded for its robust vaccination program, including the uptick in the numbers of people getting vaccines for the first time over the past month.”