Starbucks Tells Employees to Get Vaccinated or Submit Negative Test

A Venti Mocha Frappuccino is displayed at a Starbucks, Wednesday, June 20, 2018, in New Yo
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
Paul Bois

Coffee empire Starbucks will soon be requiring workers to get vaccinated or submit a weekly negative coronavirus test.

Starbucks made its announcement as the January 10 deadline for President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate looms close ahead, requiring companies with 100 or more employees to enforce vaccination or weekly negative coronavirus tests.

In a memo to employees on December 27, Starbucks Chief Operating Officer John Culver hailed the vaccine as “the best option” to combat the coronavirus.

“My responsibility, and that of every leader, is to do whatever we can to help keep you safe and to create the safest work environment possible,” Culver wrote to his 220,000 U.S. employees. “The vaccine is the best option we have, by far, when it comes to staying safe and slowing the spread of COVID-19.”

The mandate requires qualifying companies to collect their employees’ vaccination statuses by January 10 and enforce a vaccination-or-test policy by February 9. Though the policy has been blocked by lower courts, the mandate was allowed to go through by a federal appeals court last month. The Supreme Court, however, has agreed to hear arguments about the mandate’s constitutionality. As Breitbart News reported:

The Supreme Court announced that it will hear oral arguments in appeals against President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandates for businesses with 100-plus employees and for healthcare workers.

The justices will hear both cases on January 7, just days after the deadlines for the mandates go into effect on January 4. Both orders are only a few sentences and do not specify whether the Court will decide both cases in their entirety or if the judges will instead decide to stay the mandates while litigation continues.

Last September, President Biden announced the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will mandate that private companies with 100 or more employees implement vaccine requirements or require weekly negative tests.

A company in violation of the mandate could be fined up to $136,532.

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