Rhode Island companies in sectors spanning retail, hospitality and even nursing homes say they worry that implementing a strict employee COVID-19 vaccine requirement could make it more difficult to recruit and retain lower-wage workers in a labor market with many unfilled jobs.
“We're strong believers that everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated should get vaccinated, but implementing mandates at private businesses creates a lot of challenges to the industry,” said Sarah Bratko, senior vice president of advocacy and general counsel for the Rhode Island Hospitality Association. “Every business is a little different and operates differently. Everyone has to do what works best for them.”
As fears of the spread of the delta variant of COVID-19 continue to ramp up throughout the country, vaccine mandates are becoming more common in Rhode Island workplaces, namely in the health care industry. The state’s largest hospital systems, Lifespan Corp. and Care New England Health System, recently announced plans to require all employees to get vaccinated, regardless of their roles. Several smaller health care organizations, including HopeHealth, a Providence-based nonprofit providing hospice care, announced mandates of their own. Those announcements were followed by a state mandate for all health care employees to get vaccinated by Oct. 1.
Bratko, whose organization advocates for about 3,000 dining establishments and 300 hotels in the state, said restaurants and hotels would have little appetite for a government-enforced employee vaccine mandate, nor a mandate that customers be vaccinated or test negative for COVID-19. There are also legal complications and added costs that could come with such a mandate, she said.
“It's an industry with a lot of different viewpoints,” Bratko said. “Different restaurants need to make the decision that is best for their business. The No. 1 thing everyone agrees on is we can't afford another shutdown or have new restrictions put in place again related to COVID-19. Mandating private individual businesses to become the vaccination police creates a very difficult, untenable situation for everybody.”
Several large companies in Rhode Island said they are satisfied with their workplace vaccination rates and are forgoing mandatory vaccinations. Those include Woonsocket-based CVS Health Corp., which has 8,800 Rhode Island employees. The company said it isn’t ruling out a vaccine mandate in the future. CVS said it’s still maintaining a mask mandate for employees at its stores and offices. The company declined to share how many of its employees are vaccinated.
“While we haven’t mandated vaccinations for any part of our employee population, we’ll adjust as necessary based on guidance from public health officials and our clinical leaders,” said Tara Burke, a CVS spokesperson. “We’ve made it as easy as possible for employees to get vaccinated by providing access to dedicated appointments, holding employee-only clinics and encouraging walk-in vaccinations at our stores. We also keep employees regularly informed with the latest information about vaccine availability, safety and effectiveness.”
Lincoln-based Amica Mutual Insurance Co. also said it’s not implementing a vaccine mandate, but it is keeping its options open.
“Our corporate headquarters has a very high vaccination rate without a mandate in place, and we have no current plans to implement one,” said Samuel Palmisano, Amica’s department vice president of human resources. “This remains a fluid situation, however, and we’ll continue to watch the data and discuss the best ways to keep our employees safe.”
Toys and games company Hasbro Inc., however, has recently announced an employee vaccine mandate for its offices in Pawtucket. The company said that it has pushed back a planned office reopening in early September instead to mid-October. The company, with about 1,100 employees based out of its Rhode Island offices, said most of its employees have been working remotely this year.
Hasbro said it was also requiring vaccines, with limited exceptions, to work in the office and is pushing back its office reopening due to the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus. "We strongly believe a vaccination requirement is the best way to protect our employees, our communities, and our business" the company said in a statement.
In the manufacturing industry, most companies are not on board with an employee vaccination mandate, said David M. Chenevert, Rhode Island Manufacturers Association executive director. A recent association survey showed about 70% of its members are not interested in mandating vaccines.
Instead, most want to keep remaining public safety protocols in place such as social distancing, sanitation and mask-wearing when needed, to prevent outbreaks that could stunt productivity, Chenevert said.
But some business owners, while vocally supporting vaccinations, cite ethical concerns over forcing workers to get injected with vaccines that are still awaiting full approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
“Think about how quickly this came out as an emergency drug,” said Karl Wadensten, CEO and president of VIBCO Inc., a Richmond manufacturer with 100 employees. “They better get FDA approval on it and mandate that everyone needs to get vaccinated and give some reassurance to everyone that there are no other side effects of this or bad outcomes in the long haul.”
Even in the nursing home industry, where high vaccination rates are vital to protecting the most vulnerable, most companies had not mandated that their workers get inoculated against COVD-19 as a condition of employment until an order by Gov. Daniel J. McKee on Aug. 10. McKee mandated vaccinations for anyone working in a health care setting.
Before McKee’s order, many nursing homes viewed a vaccine requirement as a barrier for hiring and employee retention, according to an industry advocate.
“I've talked to a few members about the subject of a mandate. They've struggled with it,” said James Nyberg, director of LeadingAge Rhode Island, a group that represents more than 40 nursing homes, assisted living centers and other long-term care facilities in the Ocean State. “There’s a major workforce shortage in long-term care. They are afraid of losing staff. It's complicated.”
At least one Rhode Island nursing home said it was moving to implement a staff vaccine mandate before the state took action.
“The last few weeks I’ve been worried about the delta variant,” said Kevin McKay, CEO and president of Tockwotton On The Waterfront in East Providence, which has been posting staff vaccination rates online, with 35 holdouts remaining of its 210 employees. “The management team talked about this. We thought we have a responsibility to keep the residents safe. It just makes sense at this point.”
Nyberg said he hopes McKee’s order – evenly applied to all nursing homes – will resolve an issue of a competitive disadvantage in hiring. Massachusetts also announced mandatory vaccines for nursing home workers recently. But he also worried that hourly laborers will opt for a job in an entirely different field that doesn’t require a COVID-19 vaccine.
“The concern about one worker leaving one provider for another is mitigated. It establishes a level playing field across the whole health care industry,” Nyberg said. “But there's always the concern that people might leave the health care industry because of it, which will exacerbate workforce issues. Hopefully, the mandate will help spur the remaining workers to get vaccinated and stay in health care.”
Update: Adds paragraphs 10-13 with information on Hasbro Inc.'s vaccine mandate and reopening plans.
Marc Larocque is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com.
EXACTLY! ALL small business are having a tough enough time getting people to come to work due to the Government handouts! Now, mandating a vaccination that isn’t even approved by the FDA, and those individuals that may have a valid medical reason to NOT get the vaccination are taken out of the work force! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? What is the next “left hook” from the government to knock small businesses out completely?????