Johnny C. Taylor Jr.
Special to USA TODAY
Johnny C. Taylor Jr., a human resources expert, is tackling your questions as part of a series for USA TODAY. Taylor is president and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management, the world s largest HR professional society.
The questions are submitted by readers, and Taylor s answers below have been edited for length and clarity.
Have a question? Do you have an HR or work-related question you’d like me to answer? Submit it here.
Question: I work for a Fortune 500 company, and our team has been working remotely for several months. My colleagues don’t know that I have hearing loss. I’ve kept that private until now. I realize I am having an incredibly difficult time working remotely because I can’t hear clearly on conference calls and Zoom meetings. It’s slowing me down and hurting my productivity. What should I do? – Anonymous
To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog:
With the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine for mass consumption, we hypothesized in our piece titled “Can Employers Make Employees Get the COVID-19 Vaccine,” that employers would be able to require employees to get the vaccine subject to limited restrictions. We further noted that our guess was based on the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission’s (EEOC) guidance in regards to the flu vaccine and that the federal agency that has enforcement powers over federal discrimination laws had not yet weighed in on the COVID-19 vaccine specifically.
Well, on December 16, 2020, the EEOC weighed in with its guidance “What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws” (the Guidance) and confirmed that our hypothesis nailed it! In fact, the Guidance does not even specially address the question as to whether employers can mandate employees have the vaccine, rather, the Guidance jumps r
Experts say most employers will encourage rather than require Author: Jerry Carnes Updated: 11:05 AM EST December 16, 2020
ATLANTA ATLANTA – Now that a COVID-19 vaccine is available to the public, it’s possible that your employer may require you to get one.
In most cases, your boss can require you to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
“The general answer is yes, employers can require it,” Dr. Fazal Khan, Professor at the University of Georgia School of Law stated.
Federal and state laws have quite a bit to say on the topic, including the situations where you may be exempt.
First, there are the jobs where you’re more likely to encounter a boss requiring you to face a needle.