DeSantis signs anti-vax mandates bills into law even as some supporters grumble - Orlando Sentinel
TALLAHASSEE — Workers in Florida have new protections against being fired for refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccine after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a quartet of bills Thursday that put new restrictions on vaccine mandates by employers.
DeSantis signed the measures at an automobile dealership in Brandon, an unincorporated Hillsborough County community that plays into the “Let’s Go Brandon” chant popular among the GOP base that acts as a stand-in for an expletive directed at President Joe Biden.
“We’re making sure that people have a right to earn a living,” DeSantis said. “We are respecting people’s individual freedom in this state.”
The new laws are deemed a political victory by DeSantis, but they fall short of what he originally pushed lawmakers to pass and what supporters who testified in committee hearings wanted.
Democrats criticized the special session DeSantis called to pass the bills, calling it “political theater” designed to help DeSantis’ reelection next year and set him up for a run for the presidency in 2024.
The main bill, HB 1B, bans vaccine mandates by local governments on employees. For private businesses, any vaccine requirements for workers must include exemptions for religious or medical reasons. Any worker who previously had COVID-19 is also exempt, as well as anyone who agrees to regular testing for COVID-19 and wearing protective gear.
Rep. Anthony Sabatini, R-Howey-in-the-Hills, has said the same thing, but went further in his debate on the House floor Wednesday, calling for Florida to “nullify” Biden’s executive order imposing a vaccine requirement on businesses with more than 100 workers.
Another point of contention for supporters is that the new law expires in June 2023 and doesn’t help workers who were already subject to vaccine requirements by private businesses. Disney, the largest employer in Central Florida, required its workers to be inoculated earlier this year after negotiating with its unions.
Biden’s order, which came down in the form of a rule issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration earlier this month, was a major reason DeSantis pushed for the special session. He has already filed suit against the rule but wanted to go further with new state laws restricting vaccine mandates.
Yet large business lobbies and legislative leaders didn’t go along with DeSantis’ call for stripping the liability protections against COVID-19 claims away from businesses that impose a vaccine mandate.
DeSantis called for the protections in the 2021 legislative session and signed it into law earlier this year, saying it was needed to help give businesses assurances against an influx of COVID-related lawsuits and help Florida’s economy rebound from the pandemic. But DeSantis said he felt “stabbed in the back” when some businesses began imposing vaccine mandates on workers.
If a worker is denied an exemption and later fired, they can file a complaint with Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office, which will then investigate the claim. A business will have the opportunity to avoid a fine by reinstating the employee and giving them back pay.
Moody’s office is given $5 million to conduct investigations, and legislative leaders said they can add to that budget if needed when they return for their regular session in January.
Businesses with more than 100 employees face fines of up to $50,000 per violation and businesses with fewer than 100 employees face fines of up to $10,000.
The bill also attempts to settle the lingering legal question of mask mandates in schools by banning them. Some school boards defied DeSantis’ executive order banning mask mandates, which relied on a new Parents’ Bill of Rights law that gives parents broad authority over educational and medical decisions regarding their children but doesn’t explicitly ban masks in schools.
The other measures block the complaints filed with Moody’s office from public disclosure, strip the Florida Surgeon General of the power to order vaccines during a public health emergency, and calls for DeSantis to develop a plan for the state to withdraw from OSHA and set up its own state-level workplace safety agency.
Both DeSantis and Moody mentioned “Brandon” multiple times to cheers from the audience. Asked if the viral right-wing chant was the reason for his appearance there, DeSantis smirked and, “I think that Brandon, Florida is a great American city.”
source: https://www.orlandosentinel.com/politics/os-ne-desantis-vaccine-mandates-law-20211118-dqpfakasdzcptdvgv3s5oa3ws4-story.html
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