TBA Law Blog

TBA Law Blog

Memphis Lawyers Weigh in on Whether State Employers Should Mandate Vaccine

Posted by: Kate Prince on Jan 19, 2021

In employment-at-will states like Tennessee, employers are able to make the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory, but a recent article from the Daily Memphian examines several factors involved in making that decision. Burch Porter Johnson attorney Lisa A. Krupicka tells the paper that objections to getting the vaccine without merit could force employers to fire a significant number of employees. “Employers need to think hard about whether requiring the vaccine, versus strongly encouraging the vaccine, is the best way to proceed,” she said. Krupicka says employers might also consider the legalities of an in-house vaccination program and the legal protections employees have under ADA and Civil Rights acts to object on medical or religious grounds to forced vaccination. Attorney and Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s designee to the statewide business reopening task force, Alan Crone, says he can see mandating the shots if a business wants to advertise that all its employees are safe, but adds that there are ramifications to consider on the other side of this “360-degree” problem.

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