Can An Employer Fire An Employee For Not Getting the Vaccine

Can an employer fire an employee for not getting the vaccine?  The short answer is yes, they can.  That is, if the reason for not getting the vaccine has nothing to do with religion or medical reasons.  Like if you are just not getting the vaccine because you don't want to.

This is coming from an attorney in the Minneapolis area when talking with Fox 9 News.  The attorney is Greg Simpson from the law firm of Meager and Geer.

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Apparently if the employee is working on site with other employees, the employer can require vaccinations.  There are some exceptions.

Those exceptions need to be well documented and include sincerely held religious beliefs or a medical condition that would make it a burden to get the vaccine.  

In other words, an employee can't just say "I don't want to get this because of my religious beliefs".  It needs to be a documented statement.  My question would be can you have this documented now?  Like if this is something that you really do believe as a person that would/could be vaccinated for health reasons, but not for religious reasons, do you need to already have that on file or is this something that you can bring up to your company's HR department now?  The topic of vaccinations hasn't been a big subject in recent years, so is this something that can be added to an employee's personal file?  And if so, what documents need to be provided to show that it's a legit reason?  If any?

Many people are saying that because of HIPAA regulations, that employers can't ask their employees for proof of vaccination.  That is incorrect.  They can, but it needs to stay confidential- like in your personal file.  HR would have access to it, but no one else.

Can places of business- like retail stores require it?  That one apparently runs under the same idea as the no shoes no shirt no service saying.  But there is no way that those policies can actually be enforced.  How would you?  If someone walks into a store with no shoes or no shirt, you can plainly see that.  But if someone walks in and hasn't been vaccinated, how would you know?

It's safe to say that with the new Delta Variant around we could see more and more employers requiring vaccinations for their employees.  But with the shortage of workers, will we see that really enforced?  Time will tell.