I run the tech department for a small company in NJ. I can do the overwhelming majority of my job remotely and have some on-site bodies that i can instruct to do things if necessary.
With that said, the company recently sent out a mandate that everyone - regardless if they go into the office or not - has to get this at home virus kit and then send it in. If they do not send the test back, they cannot go to work.
Fortunately, I'm salaried and can probably ride most of this out by just not going on site. But my question is, is it legal to force people to have medical testing and/or the eventual vaccination in order to return to work?
I'm full on happy capitalist and will accept the answer that "a private company has the right to ask their employees to do whatever they want, you can get another job if you don't want to comply". I am in the process of getting that going as we speak.
I'm getting the paperwork going and will have an LLC filed so i can start offering consulting services instead. If my boss likes me that much, and doesn't want to lose me but cannot treat employees unfairly, he can 1099 me.
Where do you all sit on this? Any NJ law pedes dealing with this kind of stuff right now?
Im in tech and in NJ. I don’t ever want to go back to the office. Sitting there for 9 hours whether there is something to do or not. I’m also sick of IT in general.
Im not a lawyer but if they can require drug testing they can probably require this virus testing, particularly the context of a state or national emergency. They wouldn’t get away with it under normal circumstances. Imagine if they were testing for aids the fruitcakes would be foaming at the mouth and it would be at the supreme court.
Yep - this is my line in the sand. There is a ton of fun stuff. While i can't stand the industry, i love what i do. Everything from security access technology to surveillance, sitting on and admin'ing the M365 instances or writing custom scripts for quickbooks crap. All fun stuff.
What i've decided to do is get my linked in updated, push a bunch of crap i've written up to github, and start shopping myself. In the interim, i'll still do my job but i won't take their test. I'll let the boss or HR make the decision whether or not they stop paying me. If they do, i'll have a backup all ready to go.