General Motors Employees Must Disclose COVID-19 Vaccination Status

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General Motors Company (NYSE: GM ) is requiring US-based salaried employees to disclose their COVID-19 vaccination status to help guide the automaker’s safety protocols going forward.

In response to a nationwide surge in coronavirus cases, GM introduced a confidential reporting requirement earlier this month for its 48,000 white-collar workers and is encouraging hourly workers to report their status as well, according to The Detroit Free Press. 

A GM spokesperson told the newspaper that employees had been providing their vaccination status to the company voluntarily, but the auto manufacturer decided to make it mandatory “to improve our data collection.”

The information, GM said, will help determine when it “should relax or strengthen” certain guidelines recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and US Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), such as mask wearing, social distancing and facility occupancy rates. 

Reuters noted that GM is the first of Detroit’s Big Three carmakers to enact such a requirement. 

Neither GM, Ford Motor Company nor Stellantis NV (formerly Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) has mandated the COVID-19 vaccine for workers, but that could change now that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for people age 16 and up. 

Even prior to the FDA’s approval last week, a growing number of corporations, colleges, cities, government agencies and other institutions have mandated the shot. 

President Joe Biden said he hoped the regulatory licensure would prompt even more of the private sector to move forward with vaccine mandates to help “reach millions of more people.”

His call comes as the highly-contagious Delta variant continues to drive an outbreak in positive cases, especially in areas with poor vaccination rates. 

GM’s chief executive officer Mary Barra said earlier this month that the company was considering whether or not to adopt a vaccination requirement and “evaluating what’s appropriate and talking to our specific stakeholders.”

Ford told Reuters that its employees traveling internationally on business are required to get vaccinated and that the company is “currently assessing whether we need to expand that requirement.”

A representative for Stellantis declined to comment to The Detroit Free Press on the company’s reporting protocol.

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Source: Equities News