1. Mandatory vaccine policies came with workers comp implications
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Mandatory vaccinations in the workplace became a hot-button issue early in the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines.
When the vaccines first became available in late 2020 and early 2021 the notion of mandating vaccinations for workers, such as those in health care and at senior living facilities across the U.S., came with one potentially hefty side effect: workers compensation if a worker suffers side effects.
A Jan. 6, 2021, story outlining the legal requirements for employers seeking to mandate the vaccine was the most-read workers compensation article of the year on Business Insurance’s website.
Among the issues facing employers considering mandates were the potential costs related to the vaccinations, such as compensable work time and medical complications — early in their rollout it became known that the COVID-19 vaccines caused serious side effects up to and including death in a small percentage of people.
Those issues were among the reasons why some legal experts at the time said that mandatory vaccinations may not be the best approach to maintaining a safe workplace. Others, though, pointed to the increase in presumption legislation — laws that permitted employees who contracted COVID-19 to presume they were infected at work — as a reason to mandate vaccines.
