JUPITER, Fla. — Questions are surfacing Friday about President Joe Biden’s sweeping vaccination mandate for large companies and their employees.
"In my opinion a lot of businesses have already done this," said Jupiter labor attorney Cathleen Scott.
Scott is is talking about mandatory vaccinations at work, something Biden is now promising to enact at every company with 100 employees or more, and something Scott, a labor attorney for 24 years, said appears to be perfectly legal.
"What I can tell you in general is the department of labor does have policy making authority and they do have ability to enforce policy," Scott said.
And that can means she said fines for businesses. Furthermore, Scott said long-standing Florida law does allow employers to fire workers who don’t comply.
"I think for the public it sounds like a sweeping mandate but as a practical matter this is the way things are moving along so I think there’s a lot of cover legally and in the court of public opinion for this type of change," Scott said.
Florida’s governor remains firm in his opposition to any vaccination mandate and seems to indicate they’ll be a legal battle ahead –
"Now he sort of has that knee jerk reaction that anything that Biden does he’s going to disagree with. And that’s sort of the political climate we’ve been in for a while now," said WPTV political analyst Brian Crowley.
The final order from the Department of Labor is not out yet. But once it is, it seems certain there will be objections and legal challenges ahead.
