Employees who are not vaccinated and are “required to quarantine due to an exposure to a presumed COVID contagious individual will not be permitted to telework in lieu of working in the office,” the policy states.
The policy does contain an exception: if an unvaccinated employee is healthy enough to telework and the employee has a normal schedule that includes regular teleworking, then the employee is permitted to continue working their normal telework schedule when they have been exposed to COVID-19.
Unvaccinated employees will be required to use any and all appropriate leave for their scheduled time in the office during the quarantine period, the policy states, and failure to report a known presumed exposure will be “grounds for discipline.”
All unvaccinated employees may be required to submit proof of a negative COVID-19 test to the county’s personnel department in order to return to work. The county administrator will determine a testing schedule for the employees impacted.
If testing is required of an employee, the personnel department will provide a list of all employees, vaccinated and unvaccinated, who are permitted to work in the office.
Clark County public information officer Michael Cooper told the News-Sun that 180 of the county commission’s roughly 300 employees are vaccinated.
Employees of the commissioners who wish to complete a COVID-19 vaccine series have until October to submit proof of their COVID-19 vaccination to receive awards through the Board’s incentive program.
Employees who fall under a commission-operated department are eligible for the incentive program, which was created in March, and have until Oct. 8 to submit documentation in order to receive awards through the program. However, the vaccine series of the employee must be completed by Oct. 1.
Proof of vaccination can be submitted to the county’s personnel office (in-person or through mail) or via email to wellness@clarkcountyohio.gov.
After receiving full doses of a vaccine, employees would receive four hours of personal time, $50 worth of gift cards from local businesses and wellness points through the county’s wellness program. Typical vaccine recipients receive five wellness points, which can be used to receive discounts on the county’s health insurance premiums. Full doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, however, allot employees 10 wellness points.
Employees who hold “a sincerely held religious belief that necessitates objection to obtaining the vaccine or employees who should not receive the vaccine due to reasons protected by the ADA” have alternate options to obtain health incentives, according to resolution commissioners passed last month to establish a deadline for the county’s incentive program.
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