IBM announced on Thursday that it will require all employees to be fully vaccinated by Dec. 9 and cautioned that those who do not comply will face an unpaid suspension.

In a company memo, IBM said that it was moving ahead with the vaccination mandate to bring it into compliance with President Joe Biden’s executive order requiring all federal employees and contractors to be vaccinated or have access to weekly testing.

According to their website, IBM holds contracts across the federal government including with the Department of Defense, the General Services Administration and the National Institutes of Health.

Unlike other large employers that have warned unvaccinated employees that they could face termination if they do not comply with company mandates, IBM says that non-compliant employees will be subject to unpaid suspension until they get a vaccine. The company will also allow members of its 340,000 workforce to seek religious or medical exemptions from the mandate.

Vaccine mandates by large employers across the U.S. have been picking up since the Biden administration announced its executive order on Sept. 9. Under it, private employers with 100 or more employees must require either vaccinations or weekly testing.

A new rule to help companies come into compliance with the executive order is currently being prepared by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration within the Department of Labor.

IBM’s new mandate brings it into line with its competitors and other government contractors.

Microsoft announced that its employees will be required to get vaccinated in August as it prepared plans to bring them back to the office. The returns, however, were paused after a new outbreak of COVID-19 cases, and it changed its policy to allow reopenings on an office-by-office basis.

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