Bell Nunnally Partner Alana Ackels offered her insights in a D CEO piece, “Expert: Employers Can Mandate COVID Vaccination in Texas, with Narrow Exceptions.” The article digs into DFW health systems’ mandates and their impact on employers in other states, which has the potential to be wide reaching.

Ackels stresses employers’ rights to impose mandates on physically present employees and notes two narrow exceptions: “1) when an employee cannot get vaccinated because of a covered disability (pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act); or 2) when an employee does not get vaccinated because of a sincerely held religious belief (pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act).” She goes on to discuss reasonable accommodations for excepted workers, the history and reasoning behind the mandates, and California’s approach to vaccination mandates.  

Ackels concludes: “In most places, including in Texas, private employers are still free to impose vaccine and mask mandates on employees. Employers considering implementation of a vaccine mandate or a vaccine tracking system should partner with legal counsel to craft policies and procedures that will withstand legal scrutiny at the federal and local level. Businesses should also consider employee morale in evaluating and implementing any type of vaccine program. In the end, most companies want a loyal, productive and healthy workforce. This can be accomplished by continuing to navigate the pandemic with thoughtfulness and decisions grounded in science and medicine.”

To read the full article, please click here.

Related Media Coverage:

• “New York health-care workers who are fired for refusing to get vaccinated aren’t eligible for unemployment benefits — in most cases,” MarketWatch, October 2021