Hartford Business Journal

20 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | SEPTEMBER 6, 2021 FOCUS: Law By Zachary Vasile zvasile@hartfordbusiness.com F or Central Wire Industries, the Canadian parent company of Pomfret cable and wire rope manufacturer Loos & Co., a decisive moment in its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic came when multiple quality assurance workers were recently exposed to the virus. The affected employees perform their roles in person at worksites, according to Central Wire President and CEO Paul From, and are indispensable to operations; having them sidelined foreshadowed the possibility of even worse disruptions, and conceivably dire health consequences, in the near future. "I just said, this is not going to end, this is crazy, and we have to take very aggressive action and treat this as a public health threat to everyone," From said. In response to the incident, Central Wire instituted a vaccine mandate. All employees, including those at Loos & Co. and other subsidiaries, will have to be immunized by Oct. 29. When From first made the announcement, on Aug. 17, few private employers of note had embraced vaccine mandates, with many expressing uncertainty over possible legal barriers. A lot has changed in the less than three weeks since, however, with companies such as Cigna, CVS Health, Delta Air Lines and Walt Disney World, among others, now requiring some or all of their workers to be vaccinated. From said those developments validate Central Wire's decision and show that many private sector executives had been contemplating such a move for weeks or possibly months. "Within two days [of announcing the company's vaccine mandate], I had around 30 messages from CEOs, CFOs and human resources executives saying they were thinking of doing the same thing but weren't sure," he said. "They were nervous about pushback. But the thinking has begun to change. Now, I think you'll see less hesitancy on this." Good business sense Hartford-area legal experts have noted a similar shift among the firms they work with. While once unpopular, blanket vaccine requirements — with carve-outs for certain cases — seem to be one of the few tools left to employers to insulate themselves from an increasingly unpredictable pandemic. Meantime, President Joe Biden and Gov. Ned Lamont have publicly urged private-sector companies to adopt a vaccine mandate to help boost the country's overall vaccination rate and stunt the delta variant's spread. "There's no doubt companies are more willing to explore and implement vaccine mandates now," said Daniel Schwartz, an employment lawyer at Hartford law firm Shipman & Goodwin. "I think from a business perspective, the calculation of what's palatable has changed, and that's certainly going to move the needle." Schwartz — who said Shipman & Goodwin is now dealing with vaccine mandate-related issues daily — believes many companies have come to see the requirement as simply good business sense. "I think this is something employers have been using to reduce uncertainty, reduce costs and keep employees safe," he said. Abby Warren, a labor and employment attorney at Hartford law firm Robinson+Cole, said interest in mandates seems to have spread from the education and healthcare sectors, where they were first implemented. Since most of those early adopters faced few serious challenges, Warren said, other industries may feel more emboldened to take the same route. For the most part, courts and government agencies charged with arbitrating employment matters have largely sided with employers when it comes to mandates. In June, a federal judge in Texas dismissed a lawsuit from a group of employees challenging the Houston Methodist Hospital system's requirement that all staff be vaccinated. The employees had claimed that COVID-19 vaccines were experimental and possibly dangerous, but the judge ruled that Houston Methodist was within its rights and working to protect patients. Warren said the first-of-its-kind case has set an example. "There's a lot of support from agencies and courts, at least right now," she said. Warren also pointed to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recent decision to officially approve the Pfizer vaccine, a blow to claims that the shots have not been studied or scrutinized as thoroughly as they might have been in pre-pandemic times. "The argument against employer mandates because the vaccines may Abby Warrem Daniel Schwartz Here's why one CT employer mandated vaccines. Will others follow? Yale School of Medicine professor Onyema Ogbuagu gets a COVID-19 vaccination at Yale New Haven Hospital. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED

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