Companies Drop, Keep, or Reinstate Vaccination Requirement for Employees After SCOTUS Ruling

The entrance to the General Electric Aviation in Lynn, Mass., on March 31, 2020. Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images

Companies are reviewing their vaccination requirements after the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruling, with some dropping them, some sticking with them, and some reinstating them.

A General Electric Co. spokesperson said on Friday that it will stop requiring the U.S. employees to be vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccines, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Epoch Times reached out to General Electric for comment.

COVID-19 is the disease caused by CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which started in Wuhan, China, and spread to the world. The pandemic has cost over 5.5 million lives and infected over 300 million people globally.

General Electric is a Boston-based maker of jet engines, wind turbines, and medical scanners. It had about 56,000 employees in the United States at the beginning of 2021.

The company’s decision came after the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) on Thursday blocked the Biden administration’s vaccine mandates for private businesses while upholding the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)’s vaccine mandate for health care workers.

However, another vaccine mandate on federal contractors imposed by the White House may affect General Electric. The federal contractor vaccine mandate is currently suspended while litigation is proceeding.

Companies took different approaches after the ruling, some choosing to stick with vaccine mandates at the company level.

Citigroup Inc., a company with around 65,000 employees, is still urging the U.S. employees to meet the vaccination mandate deadline—Jan. 14.

“Going into the last day [of the deadline], we expect the number of employees who have not complied will decrease even further. Our goal has always been to keep everyone at Citi, and we sincerely hope all of our colleagues take action to comply,” Citigroup human resource chief Sara Wechter said in a LinkedIn post.

Wechter said the company had reached 99 percent compliance with the vaccine mandate on Jan. 14.

Members of the Supreme Court pose for a group photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on April 23, 2021. Erin Schaff/Pool/Getty Images

In the Jan. 13 ruling, SCOTUS upheld the CMS vaccine mandate for health care workers. Around 10.4 million health care workers at 76,000 medical facilities will be affected by the ruling.

America’s highest court also let stand two controversial parts of the CMS vaccine mandates: no testing opt-out and no recognition of natural immunity.

Some health care providers started to reinstate vaccine mandates after the ruling.

Cleveland Clinic, a medical center in Cleveland, Ohio, said on Thursday that it will bring back its vaccine mandate.

“In accordance with this federal mandate, we are requiring all of our employees and those who provide services with our facilities in those states to receive their first dose of an mRNA vaccine or their one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine by January 27, 2022, and the second dose by February 28, 2022. Those who do not receive their vaccinations and who do not have an approved exemption will be placed on an unpaid leave of absence,” the medical center said in a statement.