COVID-19
Kroger adds monthly surcharge for unvaccinated workers and cuts their COVID-19 sick leave
The country’s largest traditional grocery store chain, with almost 500,000 employees, said vaccinations are a focus for the company
The country’s largest supermarket operator is handing down the ultimate punishments to employees unvaccinated against COVID-19. Beginning next year, Kroger will take away paid leave for unvaccinated employees who get COVID-19 and will require some to pay a monthly health insurance surcharge.
A company spokeswoman said the policies will be implemented in order to encourage staff to make the choice to get the vaccine. Fully vaccinated employees who get breakthrough cases, however, will still be provided paid leave.
Kroger is one of the country’s biggest employers with about 465,000 workers. The announcement was made by the supermarket giant on Tuesday when a companywide memo was sent out. The changes will take effect on January 1st. The company will continue its policy of offering a $100 incentive to all employees who become fully vaccinated.
“As we prepare to navigate the next phase of the pandemic, we are modifying policies to encourage safe behaviors including vaccination,” the spokeswoman said in a statement.
Starting next year, salaried, non-union employees who are unvaccinated and enrolled in the company’s health insurance plan must pay a monthly $50 surcharge, the company spokeswoman said.
The announcement comes as the spread of the omicron variant creates new uncertainty about how businesses should operate and when corporate employees will return to the office. New York and California have reinstated mask mandates, regardless of vaccination status. That’s led to retailers posting entrance signs reminiscent of the earlier months of the pandemic, reminding customers they must put on masks before stepping inside. Some companies, including Google, have pushed back plans to require employees to return to the office in January.
Other companies have also tightened rules around Covid vaccinations or added penalties for employees who do not get them. Starting in November, unvaccinated Delta Air Lines employees must pay a $200 monthly surcharge for health insurance.
Have we not learned our lesson? The now infamous National Institutes of Health has renewed a grant to EcoHealth Alliance for research on the “risk of bat coronavirus spillover emergence.” The news is shocking to many due to multiple agencies of the U.S. government supporting the lab leak theory of Covid’s origin.
“Zoonotic coronaviruses (CoVs) represent a significant threat to global health, as demonstrated by the emergence of SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2,” a press release read. “Bats were identified as the wildlife reservoirs of SARS-CoV by EcoHealth Alliance, and since then, we have published hundreds of novel SARS-related CoV (SARSr-CoV) sequences from wildlife in China and across Southeast Asia.”
In order to “ease” concerns and some objections, the press release noted on-the-ground work under the auspices of this new grant will not be conducted in China. The study is specific to southern China, but the “renewed work will involve collaboration only between EcoHealth Alliance and the Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School.”
All “recombinant virus culture or infection experiments” will also be removed from the research process. The press release assured that the research would not be “gain of function,” which involves extracting viruses from animals and engineering them in a lab to make them more transmissible or dangerous to humans.
The Biden administration has been supportive. National Review reports:
In February, national-security council communications coordinator John Kirby said the Biden administration supports gain-of-function research despite the potential risks as long as that it is pursued in a safe and transparent manner.
“[The president] believes that [the research is] important to help prevent future pandemics, which means he understands that there has to be legitimate scientific research into . . . the potential sources of pandemics so that we understand [them] and so we can prevent them from happening,” Kirby said.
However, let’s not forget:
in February, FBI director Christopher Wray told Fox News that Covid likely escaped from a laboratory in China, issuing the first public opinion of the sort from the agency on the origins of the virus.
“The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan,” Wray said. “Here you are talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab.”
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Kevin Johnson
December 16, 2021 at 8:37 am
Kevin Johnson
Mike
December 16, 2021 at 9:53 am
Might be time to boycott Kroger. I’ll take American freedoms over a big time grocery store anytime
KS_Tadpole
December 16, 2021 at 10:17 am
Will they take away vacation pay for infected vaccinated employees?
M. Jones
December 16, 2021 at 10:31 am
Guess I will be limiting my shopping at Kroeger, as to support their hard working employees who continued to work throughout the pandemic. Not fair to penalize employees for not getting a vaccine that hasn’t even been proven effective. And, if they have health issues or have a religious belief that goes against having a vaccine put in their body, that contains fetal matter, from embryo tissue, that’s really wrong. Many jobs out there right now. Hopefully, they’ll all find a better employer.
Blue Ridge Mama
December 16, 2021 at 3:15 pm
Very stupid choice on their part…
Javaman
December 16, 2021 at 3:26 pm
I will never set foot in one of there stores for the rest of my life.
Gloria B SWARD
December 16, 2021 at 5:15 pm
BOYCOTT–It is against the First Amendment Rights. Do they have any young men between 18-25? Will they take responsibility if any one of these young men are adversely affected by heart conditions as a result of the vaccine? They better prepare for lawsuits.
Rhonda
December 16, 2021 at 5:43 pm
With the Covid pandemic our current socialist-headed Democrats have been given a head start on controlling the population thru mandates and scare tactics. I love the way the word “choice” is used.
Brenda Bullard
December 27, 2021 at 1:14 am
those Democrats dropped their slogan, “My Body My Choice” REAL FAST! And in their case it wasn’t even THEIR body! But these people are being forced to take the shot through intimidation and it actually IS their own body!
LesHL
December 16, 2021 at 5:53 pm
Time for these 5000,000 employees to unionize, strike and shut them down. Any of these large corporations that demand, and punish employees needs to be punished themselves! Forcing anyone to put something in their body, they don’t want or believe in through intimidation is disgusting and probably illegal.
Word7
December 16, 2021 at 7:46 pm
Tyrants, I won’t be shopping St Krogers anymore.
Shelly
December 16, 2021 at 8:05 pm
Don’t shop there anyway. That is outrageous!
Cynthia Banks
December 16, 2021 at 10:56 pm
I have shopped at the Smith’s in Mesquite Nevada for the last eleven years. That stops today. How dare you blackmail your employees many who have become very dear to me. Take your company and shove it.