Greater Boston Chamber Of Commerce: Half Of Businesses Surveyed Will Require Employees To Be Vaccinated
BOSTON (CBS) - If you want to work in Massachusetts, dozens of companies will ask for proof of COVID-19 vaccination. That's according to the results of a new survey the greater Boston Chamber of Commerce recently did, asking 61 directors of the board about their plans.
"A year ago, it would have surprised the heck out of me," said Sandy Lish, principal and cofounder of The Castle Group. "As of today, our employees who want to come to the office must be vaccinated, and they must be masked if they are not vaccinated, and they must have a negative test," she said. "But that's today. As we know, things are changing all the time."
"With the final approval of vaccines by the federal government, we're seeing more companies that are requiring vaccines," said President and CEO of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce James Rooney. "It's up to 50% in our survey, and others are saying they're considering it."
PTC, a global software company with an office in Boston's Seaport District, just implemented a vaccine mandate. "We have officially decided to require a vaccination for all of our employees and anyone else entering a PTC office in the U.S." said spokesperson Greg Payne. "Our employees want to be back in the office."
Massachusetts Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Michael Kennealy spoke about the importance of vaccinations at a virtual conference run by the Chamber Monday. "Because that will be the ultimate game-changer here with the pandemic," he said.
Forcing COVID shots is something Lish says she never would have imagined when the pandemic first hit. "But now, given where we've been over the past year-and-a-half, it's not surprising, because we need to get back to work," she said. "People need to work".
