Delaware's largest employers had COVID-19 vaccine rules in place prior to Biden mandate

Several Delaware companies are preparing to return employees to their offices now that a vast majority of adults here are vaccinated and Biden's vaccination mandate for large businesses is taking shape.

The Biden administration's requirement that employees of companies with 100 or more workers be vaccinated against COVID-19 or tested weekly for the disease is set to go into effect on Jan. 4 should challenges from Republican-led states not prevail.

In the month and a half since Biden announced his intent to issue the mandate, several of Delaware's largest employers have already instituted their own rules, many with the goal of returning their staffs to in-person work.

Among the companies that have mandated employees be vaccinated are Citi, Amtrak and Wilmington-area pharmaceutical maker Incyte. Other companies, such as JPMorgan Chase and AstraZeneca, have testing options.

The federal mandate is aimed at increasing vaccination rates nationwide and allowing workers to return to in-person work to keep businesses open, Biden said while noting he wishes the rule wasn't necessary. His administration is also mandating health care workers at facilities funded by Medicare or Medicaid be vaccinated by Jan. 4.

As presently constructed, the mandate will be enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration through worker complaints and occasional in-person spot checks. The rules do not stipulate employers must provide testing.

The extent to which the new rules will impact Delaware isn't clear.

About 245,000 people are employed by the 550 Delaware companies with more than 100 workers, according to data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages provided by the Delaware Department of Labor in September.

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Many of the state's largest employers have already imposed vaccination or testing requirements for several weeks. To date, more than 8 in 10 Delawareans 18 and older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

As the delta variant rapidly spread in late summer, ChristianaCare – the largest health system and private employer in Delaware – became among the first companies to mandate employees be vaccinated.

Saint Francis Healthcare, Nemours Children's Health System and Beebe Healthcare have also required employees to get vaccinated.

Delaware followed the health systems' lead, announcing in August that state employees as well as long-term care and health care workers must be vaccinated or undergo regular testing starting Sept. 30. Delaware added teachers and school staff to the mandate effective Nov. 1.

The University of Delaware has also required staff and students get vaccinated.

"The experience says these mandates do move the needle quite a bit on employees’ willingness to get vaccinated," said Laura Boudreau, an assistant professor at Columbia University who studies labor issues.

In Delaware's largest test case, 150 of ChristianaCare's 14,000 employees were fired when its vaccination mandate took effect in September.

Biden's mandate will affect companies at the center of some of Delaware's earliest COVID-19 hot spots. Perdue Farms said it was still evaluating Biden's mandate, while Mountaire Farms did not respond to a request for comment.

Other businesses that have operated in person throughout the pandemic, including large retail and fast food chains like Walmart, Target and McDonald's have stopped short of mandating vaccinations for front-line employees, so far encouraging workers to get vaccinated.

What returning to the office looks like

For Barclays, which has phased in 1,300 employees to its Wilmington Riverfront offices over the past few days, the decision to mandate on-site employees be vaccinated was driven by safety considerations, said Denny Nealon, CEO of Barclays US Consumer Bank. Unvaccinated employees are allowed to work from home. Nealon hopes they can be folded in if the pandemic continues to regress.

Barclays approach will emphasize flexibility. Employees are asked to work from the office three days a week and can work wherever they want the other two days.

During the pandemic, Barclays renovated its Wilmington office to incorporate more collaborative spaces, ridding the building of all its cubicles in favor of standing desks, wide monitors and sofas and armchairs. The goal is for employees to spend their in-person time collaborating with colleagues and their at-home time making calls and completing work better suited for a private setting.

"There's lots of work that can be done, that we've proven we can do from home," Nealon said. "But the speed at which you can move when you don't have to schedule a call or you can just quickly talk to someone down the hall – the impromptu kind of engagements – I do think it speeds up decision-making and ideation."

According to Kastle Systems, which makes entry keycard systems, 34.2% of the Philadelphia metro (including New Castle County) has returned to the office as of the third quarter.

Wills Elliman, senior managing director at Newmark, said exiting the pandemic he expects most companies will keep a physical office presence. Continuing a pre-pandemic trend, he expects more companies to downsize and reorient their spaces to cater toward a hybrid schedule.

"Instead of having everyone have an assigned work space, it becomes work spaces that are fluid and you can just go in," Elliman said.

The Associated Press contributed.

Contact Brandon Holveck at bholveck@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter @holveck_brandon.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware companies act before Biden vaccination mandate