Amidst the second COVID-19 wave that is sweeping across the world, US President Joe Biden has urged companies to allow paid leaves to those employees who want to get vaccinated. Mentioning that vaccinating against COVID-19 is now a national duty of all the citizens of the country, the President has directed that no employer should stop employees from getting vaccinated, under any excuse whatsoever.
Biden called upon “every employer, large and small, in every state to give employees the time off they need—with pay—to get vaccinated.” He has urged employers to let the employees take time off whenever they wish to get vaccinated and recover from the side-effects, if any.
The President does not want any American to “lose a single dollar from their paycheck because they chose to fulfill their patriotic duty of getting vaccinated.”
New tax credits have been announced to encourage the employers to allow paid leaves to the employees for vaccination process. For the companies with less than 500 employees, the credit will cover leave for up to $511 per day for up to 10 workdays, or 80 work hours. This will be effective for vaccination between April 1 and September 30.
This benefit is for the sake of those thousands of Americans who are unable to get vaccinated as they cannot afford to lose a single day’s pay. The need to get leave for a day after the shot has been felt as the dosage has been known to leave people feeling under the weather for a while immediately after vaccination.
Some companies have already notified their employees about the paid leaves for vaccination procedure with additional rewards to promote vaccination among the workforce.
A survey report by Willis Towers Watson says that out of 446 organisations surveyed, approximately 49 per cent are willing to offer incentives to the employers to get vaccinated or are undertaking plans to do so. On the other hand, 39 per cent out of those are considering allowing paid leaves or extra leaves to their staff to get inoculated. One out of four employers is allowing paid or sick leaves to the employees suffering from some negative reactions, while 48 per cent are considering doing so.
