As the US and many countries widen the eligibility & distribution of vaccines, companies now face the question of how to allow their workforce to safely return to the office during what may be called a transitional period between ‘pandemic’ and ‘post-pandemic’. Vaccine privileges are a solution to consider.
Many companies have already adapted to the pandemic by utilizing safety and compliance tools like COVID-19 safety screeners to allow some back into the office while following the capacity rules set by the government.
However, as infection rates drop and vaccinations rise, companies are increasingly creating their own rules around office density.
A key question safety teams and HR departments face is whether vaccinated employees should be allowed special privileges.
When setting out these rules, a key question safety teams and HR departments face is whether vaccinated employees should be allowed special privileges when visiting the office and whether to implement a mandatory vaccination program.
Here are some important considerations that can help drive the internal conversation in your company.
It’s already happening
At a national level, Israel leads the world in getting its population inoculated against COVID-19. As of April 2021, well over 60% of the country’s 9 million citizens have received at least one dose.
Alongside a rapid and well coordinated drive to inoculate citizens, Israel launched the ‘Green Pass’ program this past February.
The Pass is a government control app-based ID that verifies that a person has been vaccinated or has infection-based immunity.
It affords individuals at least six months of ‘privileges’ to access gyms, concerts, stadiums, theatres, restaurants and more.
In practice the government’s bet is that vaccinated individuals pose little to no risk of spreading the virus and thus can participate more fully in many activities that were off-limits during the pandemic.
At present the app does not store any additional health information and is solely intended for use during the current pandemic.
Salesforce announced that they will allow vaccinated employees access to their iconic Headquarters in San Francisco starting May 2021
In the United States private sector, Salesforce announced that they will allow vaccinated employees access to their iconic Headquarters in San Francisco starting May 2021, which has been largely shuttered since the start of the pandemic.
Although Salesforce is hardly the first to allow employees back, it has been one of the first formal announcements that vaccinated employees will enjoy preferential access to company resources (i.e. the office).
The company does clarify that the move is part of a larger reopening plan that will allow all employees access to the building, regardless of vaccine or prior infection status.
Is offering vaccine privilege a form of discrimination and is it allowed?
Vaccine passports and privileges are sure to be a messy and complicated ethical and legal problem around the globe.
This is especially true for the current COVID-19 pandemic where the available vaccines were developed in record time and are being administered under emergency authorizations.
The Biden administration has made it clear that there will be no federally mandated COVID-19 vaccine passport database.
In the United States, the Biden administration has made it clear that there will be no federally mandated COVID-19 vaccine passport database. Instead they have opted to allow states the lead to create laws as well as leaving room for the private sector to take the steps they deem necessary.
Within that context, experts have said that businesses can certainly ask employees about their vaccination status on a voluntary basis. Employees can choose not to respond without consequence.
If a business is simply gathering data to understand their employees’ choices around getting vaccinated, this would not constitute discrimation since the information is being voluntarily submitted by the employee.
The collection of this information would also not violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) as the law only pertains to how ‘covered entities’ like doctors interact with personal health information.
Whether employers can require employees to provide information about their vaccination status is a more complicated question.
At the start of 2021, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) published their guidelines around vaccination requirements as it relates to the current pandemic.
They broadly green-lighted the ability for businesses to mandate that employees be vaccinated to fulfill their roles, even if it’s simply coming into the office.
Think of it as a ‘No Shirt, No Shoes, No Vaccine - No Service!’ policy.
The same is true of patrons of a business. Think of it as a ‘No Shirt, No Shoes, No Vaccine - No Service!’ policy.
The EEOC did, however, note that the business should allow for reasonable exceptions which is where a mandatory vaccination requirement becomes challenging and costly to uphold for businesses.
If an employee chooses not to receive a vaccine for a reason covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), businesses will have to accommodate or choose to exclude the employee on the basis of posing a ‘direct threat’ to others in the workplace.
There are sure to be many legal challenges and ongoing ethical concerns that pertain to vaccine privileges in and outside the workplace. Businesses will have to make decisions specific to their context and address concerns as they come up.
What could it look like in practice?
Most people are familiar with immunization as a barrier to service or entry. Schools in a majority of countries require children to be vaccinated against dangerous communicable diseases like smallpox and measles.
Employees in settings working with the vulnerable or immunocompromised are required to present vaccination certificates as a bar to entry into the profession.
In the United States, immunization cards and health records are still largely paper-based while other countries like Israel have achieved near universal digitization.
Following suit, current COVID-19 U.S. vaccination records are small paper-based Center for Disease Control cards with no accompanying centralized digital record of the immunization.
As soon as vaccinations began in the U.S., forgeries also started to surface. This is a particularly vexing problem for any institution looking to implement vaccine privileges.
As soon as vaccinations began in the U.S., forgeries also started to surface. This is a particularly vexing problem for any institution looking to implement vaccine privileges.
To solve the problem, organizations and governments across the globe have been working to create applications to make accessing and presenting one’s vaccine record as easy as displaying a QR code, while ensuring the information is true, safe, secure and upholds privacy.
A number of initiatives are already being applied and tested in a real-world context such as Israel’s Green Pass and New York’s Excelsior Pass.
Outside of government-led or sponsored initiatives, a whole slew of apps have been developed with the same goal in mind: easily display a person’s health status as it relates to COVID-19, whether through immunization or a negative PCR test.
Businesses considering mandating a vaccination policy will need to consider an option or options that are effective and tamper-proof
Businesses considering mandating a vaccination policy will need to consider an option or options that are effective and tamper-proof such as CommonPass, Health Pass, and Clear, to name a few.
On the other hand, businesses can opt to keep the inquiry optional. They can consider an application that appends the question to existing workplace health screening questionnaires.
These types of quick questionnaires have become a mainstay for workplaces allowing a limited number of employees into the office during the pandemic.
New apps like Zynq.io
The latter option is likely to present a quick and convenient option for many businesses as it offers businesses the critical data it may need to implement a wider policy around vaccine privileges at the organization.
There won’t be 100% compliance
Companies of all sizes have to be prepared that they will not have a 100% voluntarily vaccinated workforce.
Polls show that almost 25% of Americans have said that they will definitely not receive a current COVID-19 vaccine
Factors such as health conditions and sincerely held religious beliefs aside, polls show that almost 25% of Americans have said that they will definitely not receive a current COVID-19 vaccine.
Top reasons for their hesitancy include the vaccines being too new and untested, fear of adverse side-effects and lack of trust in authorities.
Tough decisions ahead
Given these realities, businesses will have to weigh the costs and benefits of a mandatory vaccination program or privilege-based program for their workforce.
The benefits obviously include the ability for workplaces to reopen to a greater degree of pre-COVID normalcy
The benefits obviously include the ability for workplaces to reopen to a greater degree of pre-COVID normalcy.
With this comes the chance for teams to once again engage in face-to-face synchronous work, reconnect with colleagues in a more familiar fashion and bring back some of the tasks that have proved difficult in a remote setting like orientations and onboarding.
And most importantly: allowing the vaccinated workforce a sense of safety when returning to work in-person during a pandemic that seems to keep everyone on edge with concerns around variants and break-through infections.
On the down side, mandatory vaccination programs may exclude talented employees from engaging fully with their colleagues
On the down side, such a program may exclude talented employees from engaging fully with their colleagues. It may also lead to increased attrition with unvaccinated employees choosing to look for opportunities elsewhere.
Employers also have to be open to the possibility of legal challenges their employees bring forward in the event they are dismissed or excluded from participation due to their vaccination status.
It is clear that whatever decision a business takes on vaccine privileges, it will have a consequential impact on the workforce.
