Legal Experts: Businesses and Employees Operate in a Pandemic-Changed Work World

In a recent interview with the Atlanta Business Chronicle, Peter Spanos provided insight into the rise in the demand for talent and new challenges employers face as they try to recruit and maintain a workforce. 

In August, the U.S. Department of Justice issued an opinion that mandatory Covid-19 vaccination as a condition of employment is permissible under the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

“While employers are legally free to impose mandatory vaccination, there is no question that controversy over mandatory vaccination in the workplace is going to rage on for quite a while,” noted Spanos. 

According to Spanos, there are several lawsuits on this issue that are pending. At the time of his interview, only one had been decided, when in June a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by 117 employees at Houston Methodist Hospital who were suing the hospital system over its Covid-19 vaccine requirement.

“Many major employers, including one airline and a number of the big tech companies, have mandated employee vaccination,” Spanos said. He added that, "the ‘run-of-the-mill’ employer has to balance following their lead with the pushback that will continue to come from a substantial minority of employees that don’t want to be vaccinated — and that will resist vigorously.”