The COVID-19 pandemic impacted all aspects of our society. Both federal and state governments responded to the pandemic by enacting legislation and executive orders dealing with automatic sick days, quarantine guidelines to protect employees from potential exposure to COVID-19, as well as legislation that improved access to health care and hazard pay. including the enforcement and interpretation of public contracts. At the same time, employers were forced to confront their own contracts and policies which were not created with a two- year State of Emergency, extended remote work, vaccine mandates, and other issues that have now become part of our “new normal.”  

In the world of public employers, many of these issues touch on subjects that are required to be negotiated. This article provides a brief overview of the way in which courts have dealt with two of the issues public employers faced in light of COVID: mandatory vaccination and emergency pay provisions.      

Mandatory Vaccines