It’s only a matter of time before businesses with less than 100 employees will be required to comply with a federal or state vaccine mandate, according to a leading small business organization.
“Progressive California policymakers want to thump their chest about having more extreme policies than the federal government,” said John Kabateck, state director for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) California.
“We're very concerned that that is what's around the bend. So, we're urging the governor and policymakers during this recess to talk to their constituents, listen to them, understand science, understand real data, and talk to the very people that are going to be impacted the most.”
Two proposed amendments to Assembly Bills 455 and 1102 failed during the recent adjournment of the California State Legislature’s 2021 session and Kabateck argues that if approved, they would have added onerous vaccine mandates onto the backs of small business owners.
“The last thing we want is sweeping mandates that will put businesses out of business and no sense of survival for anybody economically or otherwise,” Kabateck told the Southern California Record. “So, let's do this right. Let's have a thoughtful discussion and we hope during this recess, as the governor is coming out of this recall, our state leaders will do what's right by California and have those discussions that were never had.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom emerged victorious from an attempt last week by 46 Republican challengers to replace him under a recall election that was launched by Recall Gavin 2020 organizers Orin Heatlie and Mike Netter.
“The pundits, the governor, his aides, and others in the capitol community have made it clear that the recall election was not just a vote to keep Newsom in office,” Kabateck said. “It was a vote, many feel, to do more to remedy COVID and unfortunately we fear that will advance more sweeping policies without any input from the public.”
In addition to imposing vaccination requirements on business owners, AB 455 included employee leave requirements.
“One of the concerns was including employee leave requirements so that employees could take the time off to get their vaccinations and that alone was ridiculous because California already makes available about 13 different employee worker leave programs including COVID-related ones,” Kabateck said. “California has the most generous leave programs available for private employees. The overarching concern was forcing every employer to require their workers to be vaccinated and that was too big of an ask.”
In comparison, AB 1102 would have allowed employers to choose whether to require their workers to be vaccinated.
“We were all geared up and excited about that one but in the final weeks, and even the final days of the session, labor unions came in and decided they wanted to throw in an additional 80 hours of required sick leave for employees, which is onerous, and we had a problem with that,” Kabateck added.