Intel Is Putting Unvaccinated Employees on Unpaid Leave Until Conditions Improve

Intel is the most recent firm to bench its unvaccinated staff amid a sudden surge in circumstances of Covid-19, reportedly issuing a warning to staff in a December seventh memo that anybody who doesn’t have the shot or have an exemption submitted by January 4th can be placed on unpaid depart.

According to the Associated Press, which obtained a duplicate of the memo, Chief People Officer Christy Pambianchi knowledgeable staff that acceptable excuses embody medical and non secular exemptions, and stated that the corporate could be reviewing these requests till March fifteenth. But if these exemptions will not be granted, she added, unvaccinated staff can be positioned on unpaid depart for at the very least three months starting on April 4, however “will not be terminated” and can proceed to obtain their Intel-provided well being advantages in the course of their depart.

Intel first notified staff of the January 4 vaccination deadline again in November however hadn’t immediately addressed what would occur to them in the event that they did not comply. The directive appears modeled partly after a similarly-styled Biden administration mandate that requires that federal contractors be vaccinated—a mandate that’s presently not seeming completely legally sound, at the very least so far as the courts are involved. Intel, for its half, appears conscious of that potential authorized snafu.

“We are closely monitoring the legal environment and expect it will take time for the case in Georgia, as well as other similar cases, to be fully resolved,” the corporate instructed The Oregonian in a press release.

Intel isn’t the primary tech firm to crack the whip on staff who’re delaying or refusing vaccination. Google staff are presently dealing with the specter of a 30-day administrative depart in the event that they fail to supply their vaccination standing or exemptions by January 13—a suspension that, in contrast to Intel’s, may probably depart them topic to termination. Facebook and Microsoft are additionally presently mandating that staff are totally vaccinated forward of their workplace reopenings, each of which have been pushed again into 2022 as confirmed Covid circumstances proceed to climb.