Is it legal for employers in health care to mandate flu shots for employees and fire them if they don’t?

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Is it legal for employers in health care to mandate flu shots for employees and fire them if they don’t?

Asked on November 1, 2011 under Employment Labor Law, Michigan

Answers:

M.D., Member, California and New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 12 years ago | Contributor

Yes it is. Since you work in a healthcare facility and are exposed to disease regularly, as well as come into contact with patients, making you get a flu shot is a completely reasonable condition of employment.

The fact is that most employment relationships are what is known as "at will".  This means that an employer can hire or fire someone for any reason or no reason whatsoever, as well has increase/decrease in salary/hours, promote/demote, and enforce requiremnts as it sees fit.  In turn, an employee can work for an employer or not, their choice. That is unless there is a stated company policy covering prohibiting this kind of requirement, or there is a union/employment agreement to the contrary, or this situation has arisen due to some type of actionable discrimination.


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