According to The Oregonian, Nike will begin firing unvaccinated staff this weekend.
On Saturday, Jan. 15, unvaccinated employees who have not secured a medical or religious exemption will be fired by the corporation, which has had a vaccine mandate in place since October.
“You failed to complete the verification process and our records show that you do not have an approved (exemption),” reads an e-mail sent to a Nike employee last week. “As a result, you are not in compliance with the Policy and your employment is scheduled to be terminated on Saturday, January 15, 2022.”
According to the same article, Columbia Sportswear will make a similar move on February 1. At the time of writing, neither Nike nor Columbia had published a statement in reaction to the report.
Nike had planned to have staff return to work on a hybrid schedule on Jan. 10, but those plans were cancelled, and no new return date has been set.
“We do believe over time that with innovation and a strong brand, we want to go to a hybrid model,” Nike CEO John Donahoe said during last month’s earnings call. “As you know, in the United States we have mandated vaccines and have a very high response rate to that. So we’re ready to come back in a hybrid work environment when that’s safe.”
Nike’s bold approach to vaccine mandates will almost certainly be faced with opposition and legal challenges. Despite the fact that broad government mandates are being stalled owing to legal challenges, legal scholars appear to agree that private businesses can adopt mandates regardless of the court’s decision.
According to the Oregonian, a group of roughly 120 Nike employees has been posting their opposition to the mandates on social media, but it’s unclear how many of them are truly unvaccinated.