Steigman’s favorite new feature is the ability to add a topic. You have Slack’s full selection of emojis at your disposal for reactions. “You’ll just be able to use video when you want to.” People will also be able to share screens in one huddle at the same time, and start a message thread if someone wants to share a link or tag a co-worker to join the huddle. “This will build on what people already use huddles for: impromptu coworking sessions,” Steigman said. The new huddles are not meant to replace videoconferencing, Steigman clarified: They’re not meant for formal, planned meetings. "Just because someone ate a slice of bacon two years ago doesn't mean you don't have to provide them a kosher meal at the company picnic if they request one," Goldstein said. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission offers a wide berth to religious accommodations, Goldstein said. Still, employers should tread lightly, because the U.S. If an employee's flu shot last year was also tested on stem cells, it's tough for them to argue they don't believe in ingesting anything that was tested on stem cells, Goldstein said. "Now you've got all of these form letters that people can print off the Internet, and a lot of folks believe this is their get-out-of-jail-free card to avoid vaccine mandates."Ĭompanies should feel free to push back on exemptions that cite factual inaccuracies about the vaccine - like a claim that there's pork gelatin in the shot, for example - and to question inconsistencies in employees' past behavior. "There's been sort of a mass submission of requests for religious accommodations," Goldstein said. In the meantime, the biggest question for many employers remains how - or whether - to accommodate employees who request exemptions for religious reasons. "The question is going to be: Is the OSHA mandate valid as an emergency rule, or will it get struck down?" A bigger issue: Exemptions "The states can't pass laws that contradict valid federal laws," Goldstein said. Other states could take action against employer vaccine mandates, but even if they do, they'll be irrelevant if the forthcoming emergency temporary standard from OSHA is upheld. Montana's Legislature passed its own law earlier this year banning employers from requiring vaccines, calling vaccine mandates "discrimination." Texas isn't the only state with an anti-mandate Banning vaccine mandates seems to be "the opposite of what the Texas Disaster Act was designed to accomplish," Goldstein said. Goldstein said he was surprised to see that Abbott had issued the order under the Texas Disaster Act of 1975, whose stated purpose is to protect people from natural or manmade disasters, including epidemics. "It's hard to see how an executive order like this ends up being more than a stern suggestion to employers not to force their employees to be vaccinated." "It's kind of a 'devil versus the deep blue sea' issue for a lot of employers, especially government contractors who were already subject to mandates," said Aaron Goldstein, a labor and employment partner at the law firm Dorsey & Whitney. Having a state challenge federal requirements may seem to complicate things for employers, but it's hard to make a case for Texas's order when federal law trumps state law under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. Abbott's executive order remains in effect, but a number of large companies are evidently ignoring it.įederal agencies are already requiring government contractors to have employees get vaccinated, and other large private employers are gearing up to require vaccines or regular testing under a forthcoming rule from the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Greg Abbott issued the order last week as a challenge to the White House's September announcement of vaccine mandates impacting federal contractors and private employers with 100 employees or more.Ī bill that would have expanded on the executive order failed in the Texas Legislature on Tuesday. workers in order to "comply with President Biden's executive order and remain in good standing as a federal contractor," the company said. Rather than following the Texas order, HPE is making vaccination a condition of employment for U.S. Mandates remain in place nationwide at Google, Facebook, Twitter and Lyft, according to those companies, all of which have a presence in Texas.Įven Houston-based HPE will go so far as to place its employees on unpaid leave if they don't show proof of vaccination or qualify for a medical or religious exemption, the company announced yesterday. When it comes to companywide vaccine mandates, maybe it's OK to mess with Texas.įive of the largest tech companies that have implemented vaccine mandates told Protocol they haven't changed policy in Texas or elsewhere in response to a new state executive order banning any "entity in Texas" from requiring the shot.
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