Mandates Jeopardize Employment for Many

As mandates become mainstream, employees all over the country are feeling the pressure to comply or be terminated. Joe Biden announced mandated vaccines that affect nearly 100 million employees. In Oak Ridge there are many employees who are already feeling the pressure to be vaccinated or face termination. The following email was sent to employees at Oak Ridge National Laboratory recently.

Across Oak Ridge National Laboratory, staff members have come together in the past 17 months to fulfill our missions and to protect one another. We continued our research, made important contributions in the fight against COVID-19, continued to deliver critical isotopes, kept preparations for the Frontier supercomputer on track, and more—and we did it while we all adjusted to health and safety protocols that evolved as circumstances required.Thank you for your efforts and flexibility. Looking back to March 2020, we had hoped to return to campus within three to six weeks. By the end of June 2020, we had implemented a testing program and counted seven cases at ORNL. Then cases began to rise quickly. We adopted face coverings and began hoping for a vaccine. Fortunately, we were able to begin offering Pfizer-BioNTech doses this March.Then as spring turned into summer, the COVID-19 pandemic seemed to be abating. Most of us had received vaccines, we relaxed the requirements for face coverings, and nobody tested positive for COVID-19 at the Lab for almost six weeks. For a little while, we glimpsed life returning to normal.Beginning on June 25, however, positive cases began to reappear at the Lab. We have now tallied almost 100 positive tests this summer, 20 in the past three days alone. Most have been among our unvaccinated colleagues. Some have suffered severe symptoms; two have been hospitalized.Our community has seen similar trends. In the four counties where the large majority of our staff members reside—Anderson, Knox, Loudon, and Roane—the rolling seven-day average has reached 497 cases per 100,000 persons, more than quadrupling from the 112 cases per 100,000 persons in August 2020.As with ORNL’s positive cases, the vast majority of positive cases in the community are in the unvaccinated population. Likewise, the overwhelming majority of hospitalized COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated. Consequently, local hospitals are again urging residents to be vaccinated. Schools are sending students home due to positive tests and quarantines.On Monday, we received a significant piece of good news: The Food and Drug Administration granted final approval to the COVID-19 vaccine produced by Pfizer-BioNTech. This is the vaccine we have been providing to ORNL staff members for the past five months.In light of trends in our community and on campus, and with the benefit of full FDA approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, UT-Battelle will require all staff members to have a current COVID-19 vaccination by Oct. 15. This means individuals must obtain their second shot of two-dose vaccines such as Pfizer and Moderna by Oct. 15. (See links below to schedule an on-site vaccination at Building 2500 or to report your off-campus vaccination.)Until a staff member who works on site is fully vaccinated, COVID-19 testing will be required at least weekly. Also, new UT-Battelle hires will be required to provide proof of vaccination, and staff members will be required to receive booster shots when recommended by the manufacturer, the FDA, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We expect more guidance about boosters in mid-September.These steps reflect the commitments we have made since the beginning of the pandemic: to protect health and safety, to pay special attention to vulnerable populations, and to adapt as circumstances require. ORNL’s policy is supported by prevailing public health guidance and encouraged by healthcare professionals to protect individuals, limit community spread, and provide relief to local hospitals. It will be incorporated as a key component of our COVID-19 Workplace Safety Plan.Final FDA approval, the availability of boosters, and the prospect of nearing 100-percent vaccination on campus will be welcome news to staff members concerned about contracting the virus due to their own vulnerabilities or those of their children or other loved ones. Although we have benefited from practices such as face coverings, social distancing, and increased cleaning, vaccination is the single best safety practice to protect ourselves and our missions. Unvaccinated individuals are five to 10 times more likely to contract COVID-19, as evidenced by our experience this summer, when nearly 7 percent of our unvaccinated staff tested positive, compared to 0.83 percent of our vaccinated staff—an eight-fold difference.To date, we have administered more than 60,000 COVID-19 tests on site and 86 percent of us are vaccinated—over 4,900 staff members. The new policy applies to all staff members just as other health or safety measures do. Employees with a legal basis for an exemption from this policy, such as a medical condition that prevents them from receiving the vaccine, should contact their Human Resources Business Partner to request an accommodation. Requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis, including an evaluation by ORNL Health Services, Human Resources, and Legal staff. More information on the process will be available next week.We have scheduled Town Hall meetings next week that will include ESH&Q Director John Powell, Medical Director Dr. Bart Iddins, HR Director Jody Zahn, and General Counsel Dave Mandl for any staff member with questions. Look to ORNL Today for details.Thank you to everyone who has continued to operate the Lab and to fulfill our missions while maintaining safety on campus. Let us move forward with confidence together, as One ORNL.

With the threat of their livelihoods at stake, many employees are trying to find answers. Even the employee unions leadership are saying there isn’t much they can do about the mandate. Jimmy Hart is the president of the Metal Trades Department union. He said the vaccine should be considered a benefit to workers since it would keep them from getting sick and having to miss a shift.

These employees were essential workers and worked through the height of the pandemic without having any vaccinations and now are being forced to take a vaccine that many do not wish to take.