MADISON – Republican lawmakers want to provide unemployment benefits to anyone who quits or is fired over a COVID-19 vaccine mandate — legislation Gov. Tony Evers said he would veto.
The proposal comes as health systems across the state are implementing new requirements for staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in addition to the other vaccines that have been required for years.
Hospitals are bracing for a new surge of COVID-19 infections that has materialized as not enough people are vaccinated to isolate the fast-spreading delta variant and keep it from spreading to those who are unable to get vaccinated, like children.
A number of protests have taken place in the wake of the systems’ new requirements with some health care workers pushing back against them citing the vaccines’ emergency-use approval status.
Republican Reps. Dan Knodl, Rick Gundrum, Rob Brooks and Sen. Duey Stroebel released proposed legislation on Thursday that would create an exemption in Wisconsin’s unemployment rules that would allow anyone who quit over such mandates or was fired over violating them to collect benefits.
“Individual liberty is the bedrock of a free republic and must be respected and protected. The decision of whether or not to get the COVID-19 vaccine is a decision to be made by individuals, not government bureaucrats or employers,” bill authors wrote in a memo to colleagues seeking support.
“Individuals are better able to determine their personal healthcare needs than government bureaucrats, elected officials, or employers,” the group of lawmakers wrote.
Aides to Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, did not immediately say whether the leaders supported the legislation. A spokeswoman for Gov. Tony Evers said the governor would veto the legislation if it passed.
“Huh. So where are we on quitting because you don’t have childcare or feel safe?” Rep. Robyn Vining, D-Wauwatosa, tweeted about the proposal.
Republican lawmakers have since the pandemic began pushed to eliminate any COVID-19 restrictions on businesses, in part, because of the number of people it pushed into the unemployment system.
LeMahieu and Vos in recent months have advocated to reduce the number of people collecting unemployment benefits, citing labor shortages due to the COVID-19 pandemic and enhanced benefits that are federally funded. Evers vetoed a bill that would cease paying the additional benefits before they are set to expire in September.
“Quitting a job should never lead to eligibility for unemployment,” Matt Cordio, a possible Republican candidate for lieutenant governor who founded Startup Wisconsin, said in a tweet about the proposal. “As a Conservative small business owner I oppose the Republican proposal to expand an entitlement program in the midst of a workforce shortage.”
Cordio said he’s opposed to employer vaccine mandates but “also in support of an employer having the right to impose policies on their workforce.”
Shawn Phetteplace of the liberal-leaning Main Street Alliance said small businesses should be able to enforce rules to keep customers and staff safe.
“So, they would rather pay someone to spread COVID-19 than allow private employers to set their own policies to keep their staff, customers and the public safe?” he tweeted.
Stroebel said in an email he’s authoring the bill because he doesn’t believe “individuals should be denied UI benefits because they decide against complying with a policy that does not consider informed consent, lacks a proper risk-benefit analysis, and ignores the science demonstrating the role prior infection plays in conferring immunity and protection.”
A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study said vaccines provide more immunity than prior infection, however. The study showed unvaccinated individuals are more than twice as likely to be infected again with COVID-19 than those who were fully vaccinated.
“Employers in industries currently facing a workforce shortage who decide to terminate employees for deciding against COVID-19 vaccination have only themselves to blame for the challenges they encounter in filling any subsequent vacancies,” Stroebel said.
Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.
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*story by The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
