Page 7 - BusinessWest October 27, 2021

Massachusetts, police officers in countless communities, and a wide range of healthcare workers, especially nurses.
The recent developments raise questions on everything from just how safe many cities now are to which games NBA star Kyrie Irving can actually play in — none at his home court in Brooklyn, for starters.
And the next shoe — a rather large one — is set to drop in this unfolding drama. That
who pays for those tests, to whether employ- ees who ultimately lose their jobs to these mandates are eligible for unemployment benefits.
“People are asking, ‘what do we do now — what can we do once the mandate is rolled out?’” he said. “They also want to know when it is going to release and how much lead time they’re going to have for compliance. And, unfortunately, we just don’t know the answers
“People would be surprised at the array of businesses, both for- profit and nonprofit, that meet that federal-contractor test.”
Amy Royal says far more businesses and nonprofits in the 413 will be impacted by the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate than most people would believe.
would be the Biden administration’s vaccine and testing mandates, the ones affecting companies of more than 100 employees, any business with federal contracts, and federal employees — mandates the administration estimates will impact more than 80 million workers.
Royal and other employment-law special- ists we spoke with said there are far more businesses in the 413 in those categories than most people would think, and all of them are, or should be, working diligently to prepare for these mandates — which will take effect soon, although exactly when is a question.
Actually, that’s one of many, many ques- tions, said John Gannon, an employment- law specialist with Springfield-based Skoler, Abbott & Presser, who said others include everything from whether employees get paid while they’re getting vaccinated or tested to
to those kinds of questions.”
Meredith Wise, president and CEO of the
Employers Assoc. of the NorthEast, agreed, noting, as others did, that the vaccine man- dates add new layers of intrigue, challenge, and polarization for employers who have seen more than enough of all three over the past 20 months.
When she talked with BusinessWest, Wise had recently left a roundtable of CHROs — chief human-resource officers — representing companies across the Northeast. The group meets every six weeks to discuss the challeng- es its members are facing, she noted, adding that the dominant topic of conversation was the new vaccine mandates and what they might mean for companies, especially in the broad realm of employee relations.
“People who have not wanted to get vac- cinated may get tired of the testing and may
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FEATURE
OCTOBER 27, 2021 7
BusinessWest