Here’s what Columbus’ biggest companies say about requiring COVID vaccine for employees
Columbus’ three publicly traded companies aren’t requiring employees to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, although one has not ruled out the possibility.
Aflac, Global Payments and Synovus have different time frames for their return to the office as the businesses monitor the coronavirus pandemic and recent surge driven by the delta variant.
Here’s what each company said about the possibility of requiring the COVID vaccine for current or future employees.
Aflac
Aflac, a Fortune 500 supplemental insurer, does not require most of its workers to receive the COVID vaccine.
Employees are strongly encouraged to do so, according to spokesman Jon Sullivan, though a vaccine requirement has not been ruled out.
“While we are not mandating a vaccination for most job families at this time, we are strongly encouraging our employees to vaccinate and continue to explore plans which could include mandating vaccinations if necessary to protect our employees and the communities where we work,” Sullivan told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email.
The company is sponsoring employee and dependent on-site vaccination programs, and enforcing mitigation measures such as mandating masks for all, social distancing throughout facilities and daily random testing of onsite employees, Sullivan said.
Sullivan would not specify which job families do have a vaccine requirement.
Most employees at the company’s corporate offices are working remotely due to the delta variant surge, he said.
The company has more than 11,000 employees in Japan and the United States, with roughly 3,800 in the Columbus area.
Global Payments
Global Payments, a Fortune 500 financial technology company with dual headquarters in Atlanta and Columbus, does not require employees to be vaccinated, according to Emily Edmonds, vice president of external communications.
“Unvaccinated team members are required to wear masks,” Edmonds said in an email. “We have implemented local vaccine clinics for those team members who want to get vaccinated.”
The majority of Global Payments’ nearly 24,000 worldwide employees have worked remotely since March 2020, Edmonds said. The company began bringing employees back to the office on a voluntary basis in June 2020.
“We continue to follow CDC and OSHA guidelines across our offices in the U.S. From an international perspective, we are following various country guidelines where we have a physical presence,” Edmonds said. “We continue to work closely with each of our facilities to implement safety measures that help protect our team members, including contactless temperature checks, physical distancing practices, mask mandates and preventive cleaning measures.”
The company has roughly 24,000 employees, with more than 4,000 in Columbus.
Synovus
Synovus, a banking and financial services company of roughly 5,200 employees with 1,900 of them based in the Chattahoochee Valley, does not have a mandate for COVID or other vaccines, according to spokesman Lee Underwood.
“All team members are required to wear masks upon entry to any facility, in all common areas, and within six feet of any customer or team member,” Underwood said in an email. “We’re also again making a number of services previously provided only in the lobby (money order purchases, official check purchases, Visa/MC cash advances) available in the drive-thru if requested by customers.”
Return-to-office for employees working remotely has been postponed, Underwood said.
This story was originally published September 2, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
