{"id":1948,"date":"2021-07-25T21:00:21","date_gmt":"2021-07-25T15:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.complianceprime.com\/blog\/?p=1948"},"modified":"2021-07-25T21:00:21","modified_gmt":"2021-07-25T15:30:21","slug":"eeoc-guidance-on-covid-19-vaccinations-and-incentives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.complianceprime.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/25\/eeoc-guidance-on-covid-19-vaccinations-and-incentives\/","title":{"rendered":"EEOC Guidance On Covid-19 Vaccinations And Incentives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on May 28, 2021, released an updated version of its guidance, prepared prior to the Centers for Disease Control &amp; Prevention\u2019s (CDC) guidance regarding fully vaccinated individuals (issued on May 13, 2021), before COVID-19 vaccinations were broadly available. The released update covers issues regarding mandatory vaccination policies, employer-provided vaccine incentives, confidentiality, and accommodating workers who may be unable or unwilling to obtain a vaccination for some reason.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Vaccine Mandates And Related Accommodations<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Previously, EEOC had announced that employers may implement mandatory vaccine policies without violating the federal laws enforced by the EEOC, as long as reasonable accommodations are made for employees declining the vaccine due to a disability covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), or a sincerely-held religious belief, practice or observance, covered by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (Title VII).<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now the EEOC provides reasonable accommodations for employees who are unvaccinated due to a disability or a sincerely-held religious belief that would not pose an undue hardship on the operation of the employer\u2019s business \u2013 wearing a face mask, working at a social distance from other employees on non-employees, working a modified shift, teleworking, periodic COVID-19 testing, and reassignment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">EEOC also stated that\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Employees who are not vaccinated due to pregnancy may be entitled to similar modifications to continue working under Title VII.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Employers should keep in mind that some employees may be more likely to be negatively impacted by a vaccination need because some individuals or demographic groups may face greater barriers to receiving COVID-19 vaccination than others. Thus, employers in such cases must think of instituting vaccine mandates, monitor the impact on protected groups, and be mindful of potential disparate impact claims.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Incentives<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Voluntary Employee Vaccinations<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Employers can offer incentives to employees to voluntarily provide documentation or confirmation that they have been vaccinated. Where the employer is offering an incentive to employees for voluntarily receiving a vaccine administered by the employer or its agent, then the incentive cannot be so substantial as to be coercive.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Employee Family Member Vaccinations<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Employers can offer incentives to employees to provide documentation or confirmation that their family members have been vaccinated by a third party other than the employer or employer\u2019s agent without violating GINA. The EEOC specifies that documentation or other confirmation that the employee or a family member has been vaccinated is not an unlawful request for genetic information under GINA because it is not information about genetic information or the manifestation of a disease or disorder in the employee\u2019s family member. However, an employer cannot offer an incentive to an employee in exchange for a family member\u2019s receipt of vaccination from the employer or its agent, for this could potentially violate GINA.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Guidance On Eeoc Guidelines<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you are interested to stay abreast with EEOC guidelines on COVID-19 vaccinations and incentives, then look up <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.complianceprime.com\/details\/796\/newest-eeoc-guidance\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the Compliance Prime webinar<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Compliance Prime, a leading training service provider with its all-around knowledge and understanding of EEOC, REAC &amp; HUD, is ideally placed to provide you the right guidance on EEOC guidelines on COVID-19 vaccinations and incentives.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is also known for providing high-quality training to business professionals with innovative strategic training solutions that have gained the trust of professionals looking to enhance their skills and drive performance, over the years. The training programs are the most practical, relevant training programs explained by experts with a wealth of knowledge covering the best practices, new ideas, and practical tips that you can put into practice right away.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on May 28, 2021, released an updated version of its guidance, prepared prior to the Centers for Disease Control &amp; Prevention\u2019s (CDC) guidance&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[122],"class_list":["post-1948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hr-blog","tag-eeoc"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.complianceprime.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.complianceprime.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.complianceprime.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.complianceprime.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.complianceprime.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.complianceprime.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.complianceprime.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.complianceprime.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.complianceprime.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.complianceprime.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}