Ford to impose Covid vaccine mandate on most of its 32,000 salaried staff

DETROIT – Ford Motor would require U.S. salaried workers to be vaccinated by Dec. 8 or face unpaid depart, CNBC has discovered.

The automaker on Tuesday despatched out a message to Ford’s roughly 32,000 salaried workers concerning the mandate. Ford will contemplate non secular and medical exemptions for workers who cannot get the vaccines, in accordance with firm spokeswoman Monique Brentley.

Presently, workers who refuse to get vaccinated and shouldn’t have an permitted medical or non secular lodging can be placed on unpaid depart with job safety for as much as 30 days, the corporate stated in an emailed assertion. It was instantly unclear what occurs after these 30 days.

“The well being and security of our workforce stays our prime precedence and we’ve got been very inspired by the help of our workers to adjust to our protocols, together with the greater than 84-percent of U.S. salaried workers who’re already vaccinated,” Brentley stated in a separate emailed assertion. “As we proceed to place measures in place to guard our staff, Ford will now require most U.S. salaried workers to be totally vaccinated towards COVID-19 by Dec. 8, which additionally aligns to federal contractor pointers.”

Components of Ford’s enterprise are categorized as being a federal contractor, in accordance with Brentley.

Federal contractors can have broad leeway to implement President Joe Biden’s Covid vaccine mandate, in accordance with new steerage the White Home launched Monday

The vaccine requirement comes because the Occupational Security and Well being Administration additionally places the ending touches on a separate rule requiring companies with 100 or extra workers – estimated to cowl about two-thirds of the non-public sector workforce – to implement a compulsory Covid vaccination coverage except they create a plan that provides staff the choice to get examined frequently.

Automakers have been reluctant to mandate Covid vaccinations forward of the brand new rule, which can cowl their massive, unionized workforces as effectively.

Each Ford and Basic Motors beforehand required salaried workers to submit their vaccination standing. Ford additionally voluntarily opened the submission course of to its hourly staff, that are represented by the United Auto Staff union.

GM didn’t instantly reply for remark relating to any modifications in its vaccination insurance policies for salaried staff.

The UAW has inspired members to get vaccinated, but it surely has not been supportive of creating vaccines necessary for staff. As a substitute, counting on its greater than 400,000 members to personally select to get vaccinated.