Starbucks is scrapping its vaccine-or-test mandate after the Supreme Court found President Joe Biden’s workplace COVID-19 mandate unconstitutional.
The coffee giant sent a memo to employees informing them of the change in policy and noting that it was a result of the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision on the matter earlier this month. Starbucks had previously announced that it would require all its workers to be vaccinated by Feb. 9 or be subject to weekly coronavirus testing.
“We respect the court’s ruling and will comply,” said the Seattle-based company’s Chief Operating Officer John Culver in the memo.
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Last year, Biden announced that businesses with more than 100 employees must institute a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, although they had the option to provide weekly testing results in lieu of vaccination. The mandate carried financial penalties for employers who failed to enforce the requirement on staff. That edict failed in the high court, although the justices did rule 5-4 to keep requirements for healthcare workers in place.
Despite the nixing of the mandate, Starbucks is still encouraging its employees to get vaccinated, and most of its employees have already been inoculated.
“I want to emphasize that we continue to believe strongly in the spirit and intent of the mandate,” Culver said. “Thank you to the more than 90 percent of partners who have already disclosed their vaccination status, and to the vast majority who are now fully vaccinated.”
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Starbucks’s reversal come after another major corporation, General Electric, made a similar move last week. GE told employees that the companywide vaccine-or-test requirement would no longer be in place after the Supreme Court’s decision.
Prior to this month’s ruling, many business executives expressed fears the Biden mandate would cause workers to leave their jobs in what is already a difficult labor market for employers.
