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April 2 - 15, 2021 Vol. 22, No. 7
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Office guidelines: Andrew McVey, a labor and employment attorney with Murchison, Taylor & Gibson PLLC, said clients are asking about whether they can require employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Index Banking & Finance .............................3-4 The List .................................................. 5 Health Care ........................................6-7 Economic Development.......................... 8 Real Estate ..........................................23 In Profile...............................................25 Business of Life.............................. 26-27
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WORKING WITH
VACCINES
BY CHRISTINA HALEY O’NEAL s COVID-19 vaccines are becoming more widely available across the nation, employers in the region are starting to ask questions about having a vaccination requirement at the workplace.
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Local lawyers say employers can require their employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine and are now giving out legal advice to clients on the topic. “As you could imagine, the question that we would get is: ‘Can we require that our employees submit to a vaccination?’ And oftentimes, we get the inquiry, ‘Should we require employees to submit to it?’ And those perhaps really are two different inquiries,” said Andrew McVey, a labor and employment attorney with Murchison, Taylor & Gibson PLLC. Still, McVey said many area employers he is working with had not
made it a requirement to remain on the job. More than 4.3 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered between Dec. 14 and March 24 in North Carolina, according to data released by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. And vaccination appointments will open to all adults come April 7, according to an announcement by Gov. Roy Cooper in late March. On Dec. 16, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) updated its national guidance concerning handling vaccinations. With vaccines now available, the EEOC has acknowledged some questions many employers are now raising about the laws. Previous to the vaccines rolling out, legal issues around COVID-19 were mainly about whether or not employers could make employees
submit to testing and temperature checks and other screenings at the door, with the EEOC offering guidance. Only in recent months have some clients approached legal experts about the COVID-19 vaccine issue. Will Oden, a labor and employment attorney with Ward and Smith PA, said his firm has a COVID-19 task force, established at the beginning of the pandemic last year, that is now working more on the law surrounding COVID-19 vaccines. The firm also has a website for some COVID-19 legal information. The firm is putting together its Annual Employment Law Symposium, which will be held virtually May 7, with a topic on COVID-related issues. “Really, the best thing to do is, if [employers] have any questions, is to speak directly with your employment See VACCINES, page 10
