ELMA, N.Y. — As the federal government presses ahead with a COVID vaccine mandate that takes effect in November for its federal workforce, there is another group of workers who will be impacted as well.
And it is not going down well with some of them.
2 On Your Side learned more about the effect on those who are employed by companies with federal contracts. They could be out of a job come December if they don't comply with the D.C. directive.
It happened Friday in Schenectady. General Electric staffers, who technically are employed through that company's federal government contract, staged a protest outside their plant against the September 9 executive order issued by President Biden.
It requires all employees working for a company with such federal contracts to be vaccinated by December 8 or face termination. That is much like a pending Occupational Safety and Health Administration rule for all companies with over 100 in their workforce to get the jab or get tested each week.
But even with attempts at medical or religious exemptions, that key testing option is ruled out for this specific group of government connected employees.
Attorney Jim Grasso is an employment law specialist with the Phillips Lytle Law Firm. He says: "On the federal contractors' side, there is no test-out option, so it's either employees are vaccinated or they won't be able, allowed to work."
At Moog here in Western New York, we could see a similar move to what happened for GE. Some Moog employees tell us they're planning a noon walkout at their facilities in Elma and elsewhere. That is due to that firm's numerous defense contracts, which would be covered by that immunization policy as well.
Grasso points out it extends down to remote employees, who may eventually come back to the facility, and any subcontractors with Moog business. He cites this example: "If the people working on the federal contract go into the cafeteria, then the cafeteria workers could very well be covered the way the executive order reads."
Grasso emphasizes that for a major defense contractor such as Moog or any other local firms, which have those lucrative Washington-based deals worth many, many millions of dollars, there is little wiggle room here in a difficult situation.
"Certainly if they have employees who are objecting. But for federal contractors, they're really up against the wall," Grasso said. "Because once they're required to mandate the vaccine, they have no option.
"Otherwise, when they put in an invoice to the government to be paid, they have to certify that they have met all the requirements of their federal contract, which is now going to require that all their employees be vaccinated. And if they put in an invoice to the government, and all of their employees are not vaccinated, then they possibly could face a fraud claim from the government."