Specifically coming from the assumption that it should be up to me what I put in my body. I understand there are exception e.g. vaccines mandated by the government (and conversely it is illegal to ingest substances), but that is very far cry from an employer requiring a vaccination. Especially for something like covid. Why not flu shots?
Oh, but they do require flu shots in some places! You know, when you could make others very sick indeed.
But more importantly, Covid is not the flu, and comparisons start failing pretty quickly. Not only do more people die of Covid, but more people have long-lasting symptoms, life-altering, after their infection.
If you don't want to, don't work for someone that requires it. It might severely limit your employment prospects, but that is your choice (obviously, exceptions should be made for those that cannot get it for medical reasons. They do not have choice).
No one is forcing you to put anything into your body. But at the same time, no one is forcing any employer to keep you employed. That seems fair.
And there are employers that require flu shots, especially in the healthcare/long term care industries. Hell, many (most?) public schools and universities require certain vaccinations to be allowed to attend.
> I don't think that is how it works, we have labour laws for a reason.
It's absolutely how it works, because the labor laws we have don't generally prohibit requiring vaccinations, especially where that mitigates danger to yourself, other employees, or the public that come from you doing your job. Lots of jobs require certain vaccinations now.
> If vaccines can be mandated by companies where to draw the line?
Typically, at conditions which unreasonably endanger workers or the public, not ones that protect them.
- require routine drug testing, even for drugs that are legal in your state
- require routine credit checks
- mandate attire standards
- dictate grooming standards
- require employees to routinely expose themselves to hazardous materials
- require travel to hazardous locations
- perform duties that are known to result in serious injury or loss of life
- require vaccines for things like the flu
- require employees to sit still in front of a computer for 8+ hours at a time, for months on end.
The remedy in the US for people who do not like these factors is to not work for employers that have different tolerances for physical safety than does the employee. I don't see how conditioning employment on receiving a vaccination for Covid is materially more dangerous than requiring an employee to work on sea-based drilling rig or in a coal mine.
While in general I agree, there are some cases where all employers make the same requirements. In that case, there is no choice the worker can make that doesn't result in the condition being there, and so there is no choice. As an example, since binding arbitration clauses were found to be enforceable in court, they have since been added to nearly all contracts. As a result, there is no choice that does not result in being locked out of the legal system.
That said, I do not think that vaccination is an unreasonable requirement.
How about smoking as a comparison? Most states forbid smoking in bars/restaurants, because it creates a public health hazard for others. Similarly, lack of vaccination causes a public health hazard for others. As to where to draw the line, I would say when it starts adversely affecting the health and safety of workers. Requiring workers to work in a smoke-filled environment is damaging to health, and may not be a condition of employment. Requiring workers to be vaccinated is not damaging to health, and is in fact beneficial to health, and therefore may be a condition of employment.
What do you mean by "something like covid"? Covid-19 has resulted in over 2 million deaths, 400k of which are in the US. It has brought the US life expectancy down by a full year. The death rate varies by age, but is roughly equivalent to a full year's worth of mortality risk, concentrated into a single event. And we fundamentally do not know what other long-term risks there are from it. The vaccine carries less risk than the disease.
"Something like Covid" is exactly the sort of disease that should be vaccinated against. The only reason why this is being done at an employer level rather than at a government level is because the federal government under the previous administration plugged its ears and refused to acknowledge the severity of the disease.
