Nike lifted its COVID-19 vaccine requirement for most employees in the U.S. and Canada on Wednesday, citing public health guidance that finds the disease can spread even among vaccinated people.
“As the virus has evolved, so has the medical guidance,” Joe Marsico, Nike’s chief security officer, wrote in an email to employees Wednesday. He said vaccines were “critical in preventing community spread” when Nike adopted its vaccine mandate at the beginning of the year.
“At this stage in the pandemic, the CDC and other public health authorities have acknowledged that community spread is possible even when people are fully vaccinated,” Marsico wrote. He noted that vaccines are still highly effective at reducing illness and death and said Nike “strongly” encourages vaccinations, including the new bivalent booster that targets the omicron variant.
Nike will continue giving people time off for vaccinations and boosters and offers sick leave to employees with COVID-19. The vaccine requirement remains in place at Nike workplaces in New York City, which has a citywide vaccine mandate in place until Nov. 1.
Nike didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on its vaccine policy Wednesday afternoon.
Nike is Oregon’s largest company but one of just a handful of employers in the state, excluding health care organizations, that implemented vaccine mandates as employees returned to work. Rival apparel company Adidas lifted its own vaccine mandate in February, according to Business Insider.
It’s not clear how many Nike employees refused vaccinations or how many the company fired over the policy, but the number appears to be very small. The company told employees last year it expected 99% of workers would be vaccinated.
In August, an Oregon administrative law judge ruled Nike’s vaccine mandate wasn’t reasonable for a remote worker the company fired at the beginning of the year. The employee had argued the mandate didn’t make sense for him because he didn’t work in a Nike office and was at no risk of infecting his colleagues.
The ruling didn’t restore the worker’s job but did make him eligible for Oregon jobless benefits.
— Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | Twitter: @rogoway |
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