Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/1452801
15 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | FEBRUARY 14, 2022 Thanks to You We Were Named the 2022 Best Small Bank in CT by Newsweek! TM IonBank.com • 203.729.4442 Ion Bank takes great pride in helping to make this community a great place to live and work. Member FDIC Eric Arlia, director of systems pharmacy at Hartford HealthCare, demonstrates preparation for the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine. and there are some workers where this is a hard-line issue for them. They simply will not work for a place that has a vaccine mandate based on their feelings about a mandate or vaccines generally." Shubert's organization has about 300 members and represents several different commercial construction trade associations in the state. Companies in the organization do large-scale commercial and government projects and were facing workforce issues even before the pandemic. "The vaccine mandates would have put a lot of pressure on our workforce," Shubert said. "I don't know the percentages of our construction tradespeople who are vaccinated versus not vaccinated, but I think that it's high enough that the mandate would have put pressure on us." A "one-size-fits-all" rule didn't make sense, he added, and caused confusion in the industry. "We've worked safely through all stages of the pandemic – we never stopped," Shubert said. "We have a safety culture, so adopting things like social distancing, masking and things like that are natural for us." Although OSHA withdrew the mandate as an "enforceable emergency temporary standard," the agency kept the vaccine and testing protocol as a recommendation to businesses. Moving forward Abby Warren, a partner at law firm Robinson+Cole who specializes in employment law, said she's telling her clients to continue identifying ways to keep workers safe, through masking, vaccination or testing guidelines. "Employees want to be safe and come to work and feel protocols are being followed," Warren said. She's also telling clients to be flexible and monitor changes from the government. Shipman & Goodwin Partner Daniel Schwartz said remote work has been so common since March 2020, that some white- collar employers mandated vaccines as a way to get their employees back in the office. The thinking is, vaccinated workers will feel more comfortable being around other vaccinated workers. Still, remote work gave some companies the ability to have more flexible policies: vaccinate if you plan to come into the office, or work from home if not. That's been the strategy adopted by some large Hartford area corporations like health insurer Cigna Corp. While the majority of the Bloomfield-based company's employees are still working remotely, it requires anyone coming into the office to be vaccinated. "[Companies are] being understandably cautious proceeding from here," Schwartz said. "No one's dealt with this type of issue in our lifetime really, so I think everyone has been learning as we go along." Abby Warren Daniel Schwartz YEHYUN KIM | CTMIRROR.ORG