President Joe Biden plans to require all American businesses with more than 100 employees to implement new COVID-19 safety measures: Workers must either provide proof of vaccination or weekly proof of a negative test.
Local employment and labor attorney Kelly Myers said she expects to see more lawsuits from employees who refuse the vaccine, but these kinds of health mandates within companies are legal — even without the president’s order.
Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana are all at-will employment states, where employers can legally set their own terms and conditions of employment.
“An employer can say, ‘If you want to continue to work here or continue to come into the office, you need to be vaccinated,’” Myers said.
Employees don’t have much choice — and people who are fired for not getting vaccinated, complying with testing requirements or adhering to other company policies don’t qualify for unemployment.
