Last month, reports revealed that one of America's largest retailers, Kroger, would be ending paid emergency leave for employees who are unvaccinated against the Wuhan coronavirus. The company also will require unvaccinated employees on their health care plan to pay a $50 monthly surcharge. Now, another major retailer is asking employees for their vaccine status and plans to take "steps" for those who are not vaccinated, whether they work in-person or remotely.
Retail behemoth Macy's is asking all employees, regardless of their position in the company, for their Wuhan coronavirus vaccine status, according to a company memo obtained by The New York Times.
In the memo, Macy's told its tens of thousands of employees to upload their vaccination status to a third-party platform by Jan. 16 "regardless of whether you work in a store, a supply chain facility, an office, or are remote/hybrid."
For unvaccinated employees, the company said it would "review your submission and you may be contacted by someone from the Colleague Advisory team to discuss next steps." The "next steps" were not specified. The company also said in the memo it may require proof of a negative COVID-19 test to be uploaded to the same system beginning Feb 16.
A Macy's representative told The Times in an email that the company was "working to comply with federal and local guidelines related to Covid."
"Macy's also said in its memo that it would adopt the new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that recommended shortening isolation periods for infected people to five days from 10 if they are asymptomatic or if their symptoms are resolving," The Times noted in their report.
The report added that in the fall, Macy's asked its corporate employees to either be vaccinated against the virus or test negative before returning to the office but did not make the same request for store employees.
