UPDATE: The Indiana General Assembly now will NOT be holding a special session on November 29, but will take up this issue in January when it reconvenes.

The Indiana General Assembly is slated to hold a one-day special session on Monday to vote on a bill that could restrict businesses’ ability to require the COVID-19 vaccine for employees. I testified in strong opposition to the preliminary draft measure at yesterday’s marathon hearing.

Ideally, state government – as well as federal – would have stayed out of what private businesses can and cannot do regarding requiring COVID-19 vaccines for their workers, visitors and patients. Employers are in the best position of knowing what’s best for the safety of those in their workplace.

When it comes to Indiana’s specific policy, there are several lines in the sand for the business community: an outright prohibition on employers from requiring vaccines if they choose, giving employees the right to sue if they contract COVID-19 and having employers pay for COVID-19 testing for workers who opt to not get vaccinated. We communicated to Indiana’s legislative leaders why these actions would be too detrimental and costly. The good news is that the first two were not included in the preliminary draft.

Unfortunately, as of the hearing, the provision calling for employers to foot the bill for testing is included. Since the vaccine itself is widely available and free to employees, the Chamber’s stance is that employers shouldn’t have to pay for testing.

For some businesses, this provision will dramatically impact their vaccine policy because it would be too expensive to administer weekly testing for all of their unvaccinated workers. In fact, one large manufacturer shared with us how much of a burden that would be. They have roughly 300 employees who are not vaccinated, with weekly testing for each one at a minimum of $100; the total cost after six months would be a staggering $1.2 million!

Obviously, this significantly discourages employers from requiring vaccinations, which is contrary to what the state has been promoting for months and months. And it would be disruptive and expensive for employers who have already implemented mandates. Not to mention, the ramifications of this becoming law as soon as next week. Do employers choose when and where testing occurs? Is it during work hours? Can they send employees to a free testing site and see the result? All are pertinent and important questions that have not been answered.

Separately, the expanded religious exemption could open things up to many people claiming it. The language also does not have the same exception that exists in federal law for employers who try to reasonably accommodate the religious exemption but determine the accommodation would be a significant disruption to their business activities.

Additionally, this proposal would expand the prohibition of vaccine passports to include state universities and public schools. Two other provisions go against CDC vaccination recommendations regarding pregnancy and if you’ve recently had COVID-19.

All of what’s being proposed would be null and void if the federal courts uphold the Biden administration’s mandate since that would trump any state law. Thus, it would make the most prudent sense to wait for that to play out. (As an aside, with the more conservative-leaning 6th Circuit Court of Appeals being assigned the federal mandate case, the odds seem to be in favor of it being struck down. But time will tell.)

With ongoing Chamber advocacy, we anticipate many, if not all, of our listed concerns will be favorably addressed in the introduced version of the bill on Monday. With respect to the most urgent item – paying for employee testing – we are cautiously optimistic it will be removed. It was made clear at the hearing that there will be amendments and, from our viewpoint, there is much room for improvement.

The Indiana Chamber will continue to work with legislative leaders throughout this holiday week to make this legislation as palatable as possible for employers. When a new draft is made available at some point between later today and this weekend, we will review it and respond accordingly to lawmakers.

Resource: Kevin Brinegar at (317) 264-6882 or email: kbrinegar@indianachamber.com