Red Hat sets Nov. 29 deadline for workers to get vaccine; IBM workers have till Dec. 8
Raleigh technology company Red Hat is giving its U.S. employees until Nov. 29 to get vaccinated against COVID-19 if they want to continue working for the company, Paul Cormier, CEO of Red Hat, told employees on Thursday.
Also Thursday, IBM, which owns Red Hat, said its U.S. employees have until Dec. 8 to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
Red Hat, which has already required employees coming into the office be vaccinated, said the move was in response to President Joe Biden’s executive order that companies that do contract work with the federal government must have vaccinated employees.
“As a government contractor, Red Hat must and will require all associates and contractors in the United States to be vaccinated,” Cormier wrote.
Red Hat said that employees must be fully vaccinated by Nov. 29, meaning they would need to have gotten their last vaccine at least two weeks before that deadline. The requirement applies to all employees and contractors regardless of where they work, the company said.
Red Hat has not tracked how many of its employees have already been vaccinated, a spokeswoman for the company said.
“Please remember our Red Hat values when communicating with others on this topic and engage from a place of seeking to understand,” Cormier wrote of the decision. “While associates may have strong feelings about this issue, and respectful debate is part of our culture, this is how we need to move forward as a company and as a business. Please keep all dialogue respectful, professional, and empathetic.”
In an email to the N&O, an IBM spokesperson added, “Given the continued spread of COVID-19, the local clinical conditions around IBM sites, and the reality that vaccines are readily available nationwide, we will now require all IBM U.S. employees to be fully vaccinated by December 8. This applies to IBM U.S. employees regardless of where they work and how often they come into an IBM office.
IBM said if an employee misses the deadline they will be put on an unpaid leave of absence.
Other Triangle companies have already issued vaccine mandates for their employees.
SAS Institute, Cary’s largest employer, said last month that its employees must get vaccinated or they could potentially be fired.
“With the FDA approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and the federal government’s recent Executive Orders,” a SAS spokesperson said at the time, “SAS is now mandating that all U.S. SAS employees must be vaccinated against COVID-19 regardless of their work arrangement (fully remote, hybrid, on-campus).”
SAS employees face a deadline of Nov. 1.
The Triangle’s three largest hospital systems also have instituted vaccine mandates for their employees.
Duke Health said fewer than two dozen of its almost 23,000 employees had failed to comply with the requirement, and UNC Health said a couple hundred of the 29,000 employees covered by its mandate had failed to meet its first deadline and now have until Nov. 2. WakeMed employees have until Nov. 12.
The state Department of Employment Services told The News & Observer Thursday that workers who lose their jobs for refusing to be vaccinated “should not expect to receive unemployment benefits.”
“Anyone may apply for benefits,” DES said, “but every claim is different, and the Division of Employment Security determines eligibility on a case-by-case basis by considering the facts and circumstances of the claim.”
Many Triangle employers have shied away from adding mandates.
Durham semiconductor maker Cree, which is now doing business as Wolfspeed, for instance, has decided to offer incentives to increase vaccine uptake rather than a mandate, The News & Observer previously reported.
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate.
This story was originally published October 7, 2021 at 10:53 AM.
