With 46% of construction workers claiming they will not get vaccinated for Covid-19, President Joe Biden's Sept. 9 executive order requiring vaccines for all federal contractors and for companies with more than 100 employees has become a concern for the Associated General Contractors and other industry groups.
“We expect to lose 40% of our workforce that will just quit in lieu of a vaccine mandate," says Ken Naquin, CEO of the Louisiana Associated General Contractors.
AGC has written letters to the administration expressing their concerns and local contractors fear they will lose more than 40% of their workforce to companies with fewer than 100 employees.
"AGC members justifiably fear that many of those workers, when faced with the choice between the vaccine and their job with a federal contractor, will quit and go to work for another contractor that does not have such a mandate,” says a letter from AGC to the White House Safer Federal Workforce Task Force that will draft guidance.
“Because the vast majority of the construction industry is comprised of small businesses of fewer than 100 employees, and so many firms are looking for workers, those workers could very well go elsewhere and avoid both this federal contractor mandate and the testing mandate being put into effect for large employers by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration," AGC's letter continued.
Engineering News-Record would like to hear straight from the contractors and employees about how they plan to handle such a mandate, and what they, personally, will do if required to get a vaccine.
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