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Starbucks Requires Employees to Disclose Vaccine Status Today; February 9th Deadline to Be Vaccinated or Tested


In recent weeks, Starbucks announced that it would require all its 228,000 U.S. employees to inform the company by today, January 10th, of their vaccine status.  The company also stipulated that by February 9th, all its U.S. employees must either be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing.

Notably, the company’s vaccine requirement means that a Starbucks employee must have either both shots of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or a single shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine by February 9th.  For workers that do not have the vaccine, they will be required to pay for their own weekly testing.  While Starbucks has recognized that a medical or religious exemption might exist for certain workers to not get the coronavirus vaccine, these workers that qualify for an exemption will still be required to submit to weekly testing…again, at the cost of the workers rather than Starbucks.   

Starbucks has cited the recent vaccine or test mandate for employers with 100 or more employees as a reason for implementing this new policy.  Of course, as readers will recall, the U.S. Supreme Court last Friday heard oral arguments in regard to that vaccine or test mandate for large employers.  While that case remains pending with the Supreme Court, Starbucks is moving full steam ahead with this new policy.


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