Kaiser Permanente placed over 2,000 unvaccinated workers who have not complied with the company’s vaccine mandate on unpaid leave.
Roughly 2,200 workers, or approximately 1% of the company’s workforce, were placed on unpaid administrative leave for their failure to comply with the healthcare company’s Aug. 2 announcement that it aimed to have a fully vaccinated workforce by Sept. 30.
“This number is declining daily, and as employees respond, they may return to work,” Kaiser said of its unvaccinated workers, according to multiple outlets. “We hope none of our employees will choose to leave their jobs rather than be vaccinated, but we won’t know with certainty until then. We will continue to work with this group of employees to allay concerns and educate them about the vaccines — their benefits and risks.”
BIDEN’S VACCINE MANDATE WILL CRUSH SMALL BUSINESSES
Kaiser said at the time it released its vaccine order that it had a 78% vaccination rate among employees and physicians, and 92% of the company’s workforce is currently vaccinated, ABC7 reported.
The company said that noncompliant employees would have until Dec. 1 to change their minds and get vaccinated, Fox Business reported.
Several companies have implemented vaccine mandates as employees return to in-person work. On Sept. 9, President Joe Biden announced his six-pronged initiative to address the coronavirus pandemic, which included an outline for making the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory for healthcare workers whose employers received funds from the federal government. Businesses with 100 or more employees were directed to require vaccinations or weekly testing for their employees.
Days after Biden’s announcement, several large businesses came forward with vaccine directives for their employees. Raytheon, which employs right about 125,000 employees in the United States, ordered its staff to be fully vaccinated by Jan. 1.
Other businesses that have announced vaccine mandates for their employees include Amtrak, McDonald’s, DoorDash, and Tyson Foods. Recently, the Democratic National Committee warned unvaccinated employees that they could possibly be at risk of losing their jobs for refusing the COVID-19 jab.
States such as Florida and Texas are among those that have come out in opposition to Biden’s vaccine mandates and vaccine passports, arguing that they overstep people’s constitutional rights.
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More than 65.1% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and more than 43 million cases have been reported in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Kaiser Permanente for comment but did not receive a response.
