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With the new CDC recommendation stating fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear a mask indoors, and St. Joseph County removing the mask mandate, how are you handling employees wearing masks in the workplace? Are you going to require proof of vaccination in order for an employee to work without a mask? And what are you doing for those employees who cannot receive the vaccine due to health/religious reasons?
So far, chamber has curated the following responses from our businesses.
- We’ve been conservative in our approach throughout the pandemic and have highly encouraged all employees to wear a mask at all times. We have not mandated the vaccine or kept track of those who have been vaccinated.
- We track our $250 incentive, but will wait until we hit 50% vaccination before removing restrictions for the vaccinated. No jack-boot card checks--we will be on the honor system during the semi-mask phase.
- We track who has been vaccinated. Our owner is wanting a minimum of 70% in our plant to be vaccinated before considering removing our mask mandate. We met this morning about if we should remove the mandate for those that are fully vaccinated, but we fear it will start shot “shamming” to those who are still wearing a mask...In addition, the CDC keeps changing their story about if people who have had COVID or are fully vaccinated can still transmit the virus or not. At this time we are in “protection” mode. We are so short staffed we can’t afford risking an outbreak in the plant.
- We are working through this right now as well and are in a similar situation where we have not tracked who has received (although strongly encouraged) vaccines and require a mask at all times. The direction we are looking right now is to remove the mask mandate for those who are fully vaccinated and required them to submit the proof to HR. Those who are not fully vaccinated will be required to stay masked regardless of the reason they have chosen not to get the vaccine. This may change as community spread goes down.
- We do track who has been vaccinated, but our CEO is very passionate about a minimum of 80% in our plant must be vaccinated before he will even consider removing the mask mandate. We are still paying our employees when they are off for COVID. The plan can still change upon further meetings.
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