The expedited federal process used to approve the Covid-19 vaccines adds another layer of legal risk to employer mandates requiring workers to take the shot, management lawyers said.
Companies generally have the authority to impose vaccine requirements and enforce them under the threat of termination. But rules related to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s sped-up procedure for authorization in a public health emergency—which state that individuals have the option to refuse the vaccines—gives some workers an avenue to sue over such firings, attorneys said.
“This is a really confusing set of legal sources,” said Dorit Reiss, a law professor ...