A day after President Joe Biden ordered sweeping new federal vaccine requirements for up to 100 million Americans, including private sector employees, restaurant owners in the Dallas area were still processing the news – wondering how to comply.
The president’s executive order stipulates that all employees with more than 100 employees require a weekly vaccination or test for the virus.
The Texas Restaurant Association issued a sharply worded statement Friday saying it supports the President’s “goal of increasing the number of Americans fully vaccinated to fight the spread of COVID-19,” added however, add this reservation:
“At the same time, we need to recognize the strains the new mandate is placing on an industry that is already reversing its hard-won recovery from a critical labor shortage, food costs rising and falling at the fast pace of seven years.”
The requirement for large corporations to mandate vaccinations or weekly tests for employees is enacted by an upcoming Rule by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Department which, according to the Biden administration, includes $ 14,000 per violation.
In his announcement on Thursday, the president expressed growing frustration with those who refuse to be vaccinated, saying it is not about “freedom or personal choice” but “about yourself and the people around you protection”.
More than 177 million Americans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and yet confirmed cases have risen to an average of about 140,000 per day with an average of about 1,000 deaths in recent weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nobody denies the grim statistics, and yet restaurant groups in North Texas seemed to have far more questions than answers. Quite a few struggled to sort through the fine print.
The largest chains in North Texas employ more than 100 company-level people, but most have a lot fewer than per location. So some wondered whether the decision is based on the company or the branch?
And on Friday everyone agreed: Nobody knows. It remains unclear how franchisees will be affected, according to 1851 Franchise Magazine. Individual entities are generally considered independent companies by the Small Business Administration, the article states, and so have been categorized for the state paycheck protection program.
Randy DeWitt, the CEO of Front Burner Group Dining, which operates Whiskey Cake, Ida Claire, Sixty Vines, Mexican Sugar, and Haywire in North Texas, said he wasn’t sure Biden’s executive order would extend to his company, that on the tour by the regional association of restaurants.
DeWitt’s parent company recently “created a $ 100 incentive for employees to get vaccinated,” DeWitt said via text message. “Many of our employees have done this. If the mandate concerns our company, we will of course adhere to it. “
Under the guise of unanswered questions, there were also concerns about vaccine exemptions and who would pay for the weekly testing. Biden’s executive order can also be challenged in court by employers and possibly states, according to The New York Times.
Plus a multitude of what-if scenarios.
Kirsten Holloway, 33, a 13-year-old veteran of the local gastronomy, is allergic to aspirin, ibuprofen and other drugs, and her doctor advised her to wait with the vaccination. According to the CDC, she would likely qualify for a medical exemption from any vaccine mandate.
“I could have a serious medical reaction and get anaphylactic shock,” said Holloway. “I like to explain that to people because it’s not just a black and white problem – there are a lot of gray areas.”
Holloway said she stopped working in restaurant service areas in 2020 after contracting COVID-19. The restaurant she worked at “didn’t do it the way I imagined it would. I hesitated to return to the industry. “
Today she works in sales and marketing for a small spirits brand that is not affected by the mandates.
“I would like to work for bigger companies someday,” she said, “but now I don’t know if that would happen.”
The Texas Restaurant Association also urged the Biden government and Congress to expand tax credit programs, replenish the restaurant revitalization fund, invest in childcare for workers, and “provide free, reliable testing for those who will be affected by the new policy” .
Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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