‘Soft’ Vaccine Mandates Seen as Boon to Worker Buy-In, Safety

Government Covid-19 vaccine policies requiring workers to get the shot or wear a mask and undergo regular testing give employers a viable model to increase workplace inoculation rates without imposing hard, vaccination-or-termination mandates, employment attorneys and scholars said.

Such “soft” mandates can be persuasive without generating the same level of employee blowback and litigation as “hard” mandates, while masking and testing serve as both an incentive to get the jab and a set of workplace safety protocols, they said.

Yet there are still potential drawbacks for employers related to the costs of testing and uncertainty over whether workers must be ...