Adobe U.S. Employees Now Have To Get Vaccinated Or Face Unpaid Leave

In an email to employees sent out on Friday, Adobe announced all U.S. staff members must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Dec. 8 and warned that those who refuse will face unpaid leave.

In a memo obtained by CNBC, the software company revealed the move was due to President Joe Biden’s executive order that requires all federal contractors to have their employees vaccinated. Adobe has software package contracts with various government agencies.

Gloria Chen, the Chief People Officer at Adobe, also noted in the email that an internal survey revealed 93.5% of U.S. employees who responded were either in the process of getting the COVID-19 vaccine or fully vaccinated.

Adobe said it will consider requests from employees who seek religious and medical exemption from taking the vaccine.

Adobe’s announcement comes two weeks after IBM issued a vaccine mandate for its U.S. employees.

In a note to staffers, IBM said its employees needed to be vaccinated by Dec. 8 or face unpaid suspension. Employees who are removed from the payroll after the deadline will still be eligible for the IBM 401K matching program in which the company matches the contributions up to 6% once a year.

In addition to ordering federal workers and contractors to be vaccinated, the government is working on COVID vaccination guidelines for businesses with 100 or more employees. Those companies are expected to require staff members to be fully vaccinated or have unvaccinated employees receive COVID-19 tests at least once a week.