Ford Asks Employees To Submit Vaccination Status By Next Friday To Comply With Biden Order

Ford Motor Company is requesting that its employees, salaried and unionized, submit their COVID-19 vaccination status by next Friday. The company’s announcement will help bring it in line with President Joe Biden’s executive order that will require certain employers to ensure their workers are fully vaccinated against the virus or provided with regular testing.

"This will aid our efforts to comply with federal COVID-19 vaccination requirements and, assess the overall vaccination level of our employee population in order to determine appropriate measures to support employee safety,” Ford spokeswoman Monique Brentley told CNBC.

Ford CEO Jim Farley said the company thinks vaccinations are “mission critical” for worker safety. He said the company is "really excited about the mandate" and that executives were ready to work together with unions to find a way forward.

Under the current plans, Ford makes it mandatory for salaried employees and contractors to submit their vaccination status. Submitting one’s vaccination status by the proposed deadline is only voluntary for unionized members of the company, a fact confirmed to CNBC by a union spokesperson.

United Auto Workers (UAW) President Ray Curry, whose organization counts Ford employees as members, originally opposed vaccine mandates without collective bargaining being involved first. After President Biden announced his Sept. 9 executive order that requires companies with 100 or more employees to require either vaccines or regular testing of unvaccinated employees, UAW said it would be reviewing the details of the requirement to see how it would impact members.

According to the White House, the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will issue an Emergency Temporary Standard to implement this requirement that it estimates will impact over 80 million private-sector workers. Curry told his union in a letter that it will be waiting for new guidance from OSHA on how to comply with the executive order.

Ford’s announcement follows rival General Motors’ own requirement from last month for salaried employees to submit their vaccination status. Neither company has required its employees to be vaccinated, but both have implemented workplace safety measures to protect them against COVID-19.