Chicago Employers Must Allow Employees Time Off to Get the Vaccine
Do you want to get vaccinated and cannot take time off work? Hello, this is Reinhard von Hennigs. And if you are in the city of Chicago, you may be in luck because the city of Chicago, enacted a Corona vaccine city ordinance, which prohibits companies and individuals from discriminating based on the fact that somebody would like to have a Corona vaccination. This ordinance imposes significant penalties for employers who somewhere block or prevent their teams, their staff to go and get vaccinated.
By the same token, it boils down to what can you, as a company do to make sure that you are not subject to any employment issues related to the vaccine. And here are my quick takeaways. Number one, if there is an opportunity for you to get your team vaccinated, why not get them vaccinated if it gives your organization the ability to operate? Because we may be soon at a time where the fact that somebody is vaccinated would allow or prevent somebody from entering a plane, traveling, doing sales promotion, or whatever it is. Second, New York is a state where there is a four-hour mandatory vacation for our mandatory paid time off for Corona vaccines.
Third of all, there are some side effects discussed as well, and certain companies are implementing rules that if you have side effects related to the COVID vaccine, you may get paid time off as well. So my summary story is to figure out if you are running a company, what other special rules in your jurisdiction?
And just because you are not aware of it yesterday, it does not mean that they may not be in place tomorrow because we all know the law can change fast. And finally, good common sense makes a lot of sense. So if somebody wants to get a vaccine to harass that person is certainly not a good idea. You would not stop somebody from getting the flu shot. Or would you?
#397, April 2021, COVID vaccine, Chicago, time off, New York.