Why Construction Companies Should Be Tracking Employee Vaccination Status

It's safe to say that the ongoing pandemic has changed just about every industry with construction companies being chief among them. Still, questions have arisen as to how to handle certain factors like employee vaccination status. Are you allowed to ask employees if they've been vaccinated? Are you allowed to store personal health information to make sure your workforce remains protected? In a word - yes.

With 2022 on the horizon, many construction firms are starting to not only require proof that employees have been vaccinated but are actually mandating them as a condition of employment. As a complicated situation, here are a few key things in mind.

Employee Vaccination Status and the Construction Industry

The reason why it's acceptable - and even recommended - to track employee vaccination status all comes from HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). When enacted into federal law in 1996, it established a set of standards designed to protect sensitive health information from being disclosed without the approval of the person in question.

The key thing to understand is that these regulations don't apply to private sector businesses - they're largely aimed at healthcare facilities and other similar organizations. Requiring proof of vaccination for a construction employee isn't a HIPAA violation. It is absolutely within someone's right to refuse that request, but if vaccination is made a condition of employment, it's also in the company's right to terminate that relationship if not followed.

Overall, one of the major reasons why it's important for construction organizations to start tracking employee vaccination status has to do with the sheer level of disruption that an outbreak could cause. We've already seen this taking place across the world stage through a variety of industries - employees who contract COVID-19 could potentially shut down a business indefinitely. Not only could this lead to a shortage of manpower, but it could also lead to further supply chain disruptions - a "perfect storm" for the construction and labor industry.

Additionally, in September of 2021, the Biden Administration mandated that all businesses who have 100 or more employees must get their entire staff vaccinated. This comes on the heels of the United States government enacting the exact same rule. While this has come as a controversial to some, it's important to understand that the federal government was actually not the first to take such a step. Many private organizations had already begun to mandate employee vaccinations prior to this because the rules they set for their employees to adhere to is largely something that they can do without much oversight.

Therefore, it's in one's best interest to not only strongly encourage their employees to get vaccinated, but to track their status as well. Note that as more and more variants with unknown properties like Omicron continue to emerge, this is only going to get more important as time goes on.

In the end, the construction industry in particular is still struggling to return to pre-pandemic levels of activity. The current situation is nothing if not fragile and hard choices are going to need to be made.