This document discusses whether employees should get flu shots and if employers can require them. It notes that flu costs billions in lost productivity each year. While flu season peaks in February, getting vaccinated any time provides protection. The CDC recommends all people over 6 months get vaccinated annually. Employers may want employees vaccinated to reduce flu impacts, but some states have made mandatory vaccinations illegal due to religious exemption concerns. Employers should check state laws on mandating flu shots.

1. It’s not too late to get a flu shot, but
should you – and can you require
employees to be vaccinated?
Posted on January 05, 2016 in Education/Training
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By Dorothy de Souza Guedes, VGM Education
An estimated 111 million workdays are lost each year
due to the flu. That translates into billions of dollars in
sick days and lost productivity, according to Flu.gov.
Flu season usually peaks in February: are you
prepared for what this may mean for your business?
During flu season, it’s important to know the risk in your state and anywhere you may
travel for business. Early in the 2015-2016 flu season, the top three states in influenza
activity were Iowa, Oregon, and Rhode Island. By mid‑December, South Carolina
reported high influenza-like illness activity, but there were no states with widespread
influenza activity, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The CDC provides FluView, an interactive tool that provides a weekly influenza
surveillance report for the United States. This tool can help you to understand how bad
the flu is in the areas you do business, but experts say to protect against the flu you’ll

2. have to get a flu shot.
Why Vaccinate?
The CDC recommends that the best way to prevent the flu is with a flu vaccine. The
CDC recommends everyone six months of age and older get a seasonal flu vaccine
each year soon after it becomes available and by October if possible. But even if you
haven’t gotten your flu shot it’s not too late: immunity from vaccination sets in after
about two weeks.
A flu vaccine protects against the flu viruses that research indicates will be most
common during the upcoming season. Seasonal flu vaccines are designed to protect
people against the influenza viruses most likely to spread and cause illness during an
upcoming flu season, which typically peaks December through February in the United
States. Although there is not a way to know how severe each year’s flu season will be,
the CDC makes annual recommendations based on information gathered from around
the world.
Flu isn’t just an inconvenience; it’s a killer: it’s estimated each year between 3,000 up to
49,000 people died due to flu-associated deaths in the United States. Most of these flu-
related deaths occur in people age 65 and older. In death and mortality information,
the CDC combines influenza and pneumonia as the eighth leading cause of death:
56,979 in 2013, the most recent year data is available.
Employees and Flu Shots
Many health care providers require employees to be vaccinated each season, but there
is a movement to make illegal such employer‑mandated vaccinations. In Wisconsin
legislation, SB 218, was introduced that would prohibit employers from discriminating
against employees who refuse to be vaccinated against influenza.
Those in opposition to mandatory vaccinations argue such mandates may violate
federal antidiscrimination laws such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which
makes it illegal for an employer to discriminate on the basis of religion. This opposition

3. to mandatory vaccination has led to numerous lawsuits. A North Carolina woman who
worked as an activities director at a skilled nursing facility filed a wrongful termination
lawsuit after she was fired in 2012 for refusing influenza vaccine for religious reasons.
She has appealed a judgment in favor of the facility. In December, two social service
agency workers filed a lawsuit after they were fired for refusing to get a flu shot for
religious reasons.
If you’d like to request that employees be vaccinated to reduce the flu’s effect on your
business, be sure to check state law changes that may make mandated flu shots illegal.
Your state’s health care association is a good place to start for this information.
What You Should Know
Want to know more about influenza and earn CEUs? Recently updated with 2015-2016
flu season information, the VGMU Online Education course DMGT036 – Overview of
Influenza includes detail about the three types of influenza, how influenza viruses
change, and infection control measures related to influenza. Not yet a VGMU user?
Contact Megan Kraft at 888-786-6628.
Flu.gov provides a free Business/Employers Influenza Toolkit.
National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) offers Immunization Resources for
the Workplace, including a checklist to educate employees about the flu.
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