Video: Can Employers Mandate the COVID-19 Vaccine?

In this video, Arkansas Business’ Lance Turner talks to Stuart Jackson, a partner on the Labor & Employment Team at the Wright Lindsey Jennings law firm in Little Rock, about whether employers can require employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine. 

Jackson wrote a Jan. 6 commentary on employers’ options for mandating the vaccine or encouraging workers to get it. There, he outlines certain considerations the law requires employers to give when mandating the vaccine, as well as important things to keep in mind when either mandating or encouraging workers to take it.

Jackson elaborates on those points in the interview and discusses the challenges that some health care industry employers are facing when considering a vaccine mandate.

He also talks about how employees can request to opt out of a mandate and how employers can accommodate those workers. And he shares key things for employers to remember when embarking on either a mandate or encouragement model, including the value of incentives.