Targeting Employers (Editorial)

Arkansas legislators are contemplating a serious attack not only on the power of private employers in the state to run their businesses as they see fit, but on an indispensable tool many employers need to ensure the very survival of their businesses.

Last week, lawmakers approved the study of a measure to prevent employers from requiring their workers to divulge their vaccination status. This move came despite testimony from a Tyson Foods Inc. executive and the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce that the decision to require vaccinations, which would necessarily require disclosure of vaccination status, should remain an employer’s right.

Sen. Bob Ballinger, R-Ozark, said his proposal would create a state-recognized right to privacy for vaccination status.

The delta variant of the coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic is now sending record numbers of Arkansans, including increasing numbers of children, to the hospital. With the beginning of school, the fear is that that total will only rise.

The COVID vaccine protects most people from contracting the illness, and those who’ve been vaccinated but still become ill have a much better chance of surviving the disease. That means COVID is now a largely preventable illness. That means that vaccination is currently the surest way for employers to protect their workers, their customers, themselves and their families. And protecting these people is the best way for companies to ensure their businesses survive.

Tom Brower, senior vice president for health and safety for Tyson, which is requiring employees to be fully vaccinated, said, “We believe that getting vaccinated is the single most effective thing you can do to protect yourself, your family and communities where we operate.”

Some Arkansas legislators would take this tool away from this state’s employers, including, presumably, hospitals, doctors’ offices and restaurants.

Ballinger’s dangerous bill threatens free enterprise and employer rights in Arkansas.