NEW YORK (NYTIMES) - Boeing said on Friday (Dec 17) that it had suspended a vaccination requirement for employees after a court blocked enforcement of an executive order by US President Joe Biden instructing federal contractors to impose such mandates.
The announcement came after several other companies, including Amtrak, General Electric, Union Pacific and BNSF Railway, recently dropped their vaccine mandates, citing the court order. Some employers have said that the vaccine mandate has made it harder to hire people at a time when workers are in short supply.
Boeing said that about 92 per cent of its more than 110,000 United States employees were fully vaccinated or had received exemptions from the mandate. Overall, about 72 per cent of all adult Americans have received one or two shots of coronavirus vaccines that regulators have determined provide protection from the virus. Some companies that required employees to be vaccinated months ago, like United Airlines, a Boeing customer, have said that close to 100 per cent of their employees have been vaccinated.
"After careful review, Boeing has suspended its vaccination requirement in line with a federal court's decision prohibiting enforcement of the federal contractor executive order and a number of state laws," said the company in a statement.
But in a note to employees, Boeing also strongly encouraged all workers to get a vaccine and booster shot, highlighting how companies are struggling to strike a balance on coronavirus vaccines, an issue that has become freighted with politics as many conservatives rail against mandates.
Managers are contending with two contradictory pressures: from workers who do not want to be required to get the vaccine and from employees worried about getting sick or infecting vulnerable family members and friends.
"According to the CDC (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention), the vaccines are safe, effective and our best tool to prevent the spread of Covid-19," said Dr Laura Cain, Boeing's chief medical officer, in the note. "I want to strongly encourage our employees to get vaccinated or get a booster if they have not done so to help protect their teammates, families and communities."
Boeing employs about 57,000 people in Washington state, more than any other. It also employs more than 37,000 people across Alabama, Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas, states where the overall vaccination rate is much lower than the national rate of 61 per cent. Reluctance to get vaccinated can be high in parts of those and other states and could have contributed to the company's decision.
On Tuesday, Amtrak said it was dropping its mandate, although about 97 per cent of its workforce had already received a shot or an exemption. Fewer than 500 Amtrak employees have not been vaccinated, its chief executive said.
This month, a US district judge in Georgia issued a preliminary ruling that the government could not force federal contractors to require vaccination. The challenge to Mr Biden's executive order was brought by several Republican-led states, including Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and Utah.
Last month, a federal appeals court put on hold a Biden administration rule requiring all private employers with 100 or more employees to have their staff vaccinated or tested weekly.
Mr Douglas Brayley, a partner at the law firm Ropes & Gray, said he had seen some employers pause the roll-out of their vaccine mandates after that rule, issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, was stayed in the courts. "Inevitably it's going to go to the Supreme Court, but I'm sure they'll try to move it as fast as they can," he said.
But Ms Carol Goodman, a partner at Herrick, Feinstein, said that despite those legal proceedings, many of her clients have pressed ahead on drafting vaccine rules to comply with state and local guidelines that in some places, like New York, are tougher than those Mr Biden has sought to implement.
