[ad_1]
SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – As California prepares to end its mask tenure next month, many people are wondering what companies can ask for about your immunization status.
Experts say there are different legal considerations regarding employees and customers, but in general, companies can ask if you have received the COVID-19 vaccine.
Employees
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Friday released updated guidelines further clarifying that not only can employers ask workers for their immunization status, they can require proof of vaccination and offer employee incentives. for them to be vaccinated.
Once employers have collected this information, they should keep it confidential from others.
Companies can also impose a vaccination mandate on employees, but they must try to accommodate workers who claim a medical or religious exemption.
Such accommodations could include requiring unvaccinated employees to wear masks, to work socially away from co-workers, to work a modified shift, to take periodic tests for COVID-19, to have the option telecommute or accept reassignment, as directed by the EEOC.
The EEOC sidestepped whether employers could impose a mandate immediately, when vaccines only have emergency use authorization, or whether they have to wait until vaccines have full approval. of the Food and Drug Administration.
“It is not within the purview of the EEOC to discuss the legal implications of the EUA or the FDA’s approach,” the guide says.
If a worker informs an employer that they have not been vaccinated, companies can ask follow-up questions to determine if they have a legitimate exemption. But attorney Richard Barton, health law expert and assistant professor at the University of San Diego, said employers should proceed with caution.
“My advice is to be very careful about how much information you ask for,” he said. “You can ask them for the specific medical exemption. What you cannot do is go on a fishing expedition.
Employers need to make sure their questions are job related. “If they ask for information that is not relevant to the work that is being done, or that is relevant to their particular business, then they are going to get themselves in legal trouble,” he said.
And the customers?
On social networks, some influencers and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) claimed that it was illegal for businesses to ask questions about your immunization status because of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA.
It’s wrong.
“An employer who is not a healthcare facility is not governed by HIPAA laws,” said attorney Richard Barton, healthcare law expert and assistant professor at the University of San Diego.
HIPAA only applies to a specific list of health-related entities such as hospitals and health insurance companies; that doesn’t apply to the retail store or concert hall asking for your vaccine card, he said.
However, there are other laws that govern the interactions between businesses and their customers. Companies cannot, for example, discriminate against a customer on the basis of a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
In general, experts say companies can tell you about your immunization status and request documents. But places and stores also cannot categorically refuse people who refuse to show a vaccine card, Barton said.
“You’re going to have to be able to accommodate people who don’t have vaccines, but you’re going to have to do it in a way where you don’t discriminate” against a person with a disability, he said.
Companies may have to offer these customers other options – what the law calls “reasonable accommodation” – such as requiring them to wear masks or deliver products to them outside.
A lawmaker in a Republican state introduced a bill that would make it illegal for a California business to require customers to show proof of vaccination before serving them.
This bill has not yet been put to a vote.
[ad_2]
