T-Mobile to Fire Corporate Employees Who Aren’t Fully Vaccinated by April

In the wake of the Biden administration’s failed COVID-19 vaccine mandate aimed at large employers, T-Mobile US is still poised to fire corporate employees who don’t meet its vaccination requirements by April 2.

Deeanne King, the chief human resources officer for the telecom giant, said in a memo first obtained by Bloomberg that employees who need “regular or occasional” access to T-Mobile’s offices must get their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Feb. 21, or they will be placed on unpaid leave.

The memo reportedly said that office staff who remain not fully vaccinated and do not obtain the company’s internal digital vaccine pass by April 2 “will be separated from T-Mobile.” Employees will be able to apply for medical or religious exemptions.

The rules will be slightly different from those in customer service centers to “avoid impact to customer experience,” according to the report. Support employees will still be required to show proof of the first vaccine shot by Feb. 21, but they will not be placed on unpaid leave if they don’t comply.

T-Mobile has confirmed its vaccination policy for in-office employees.

“T-Mobile’s badge-controlled offices continue to be accessible only to those who are vaccinated against COVID-19 and we have shared with employees that we are requiring office workers to be fully vaccinated by April 2,” the company said in a statement, adding that there will be will be “limited” exceptions for “certain roles, locations and legally mandated accommodations and exemptions.”

The report comes as the Biden administration officially withdraws a proposed rule that would have required workers at large businesses to get vaccinated or be subjected to weekly COVID-19 testing. On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) said on its website that it will stop enforcing the Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) for employers with 100 or more employees.

“Although OSHA is withdrawing the vaccination and testing ETS as an enforceable emergency temporary standard, the agency is not withdrawing the ETS as a proposed rule. The agency is prioritizing its resources to focus on finalizing a permanent COVID-19 Healthcare Standard,” the federal agency said.

In a 6–3 decision that blocked Biden administration from enforcing the vax-or-test rule for private companies, the Supreme Court ruled that OSHA cannot simply bypass Congress to impose such requirements.

“The agency claims the power to force 84 million Americans to receive a vaccine or undergo regular testing,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion (pdf). “By any measure, that is a claim of power to resolve a question of vast national significance. Yet Congress has nowhere clearly assigned so much power to OSHA.”