SC Senate passes COVID-19 vaccine mandate ban, but takes out punitive measure on businesses
The Senate passed a bill Wednesday that prevents state and local governments and school districts in South Carolina from requiring employees, first responders or students to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
But the plan didn’t include an unemployment insurance tax surcharge for businesses that fire employees for not taking the COVID-19 vaccine.
The bill passed in a 29-12 vote. No Democrats in the Senate voted for the measure.
The tax surcharge was taken out of the legislation to gain enough support for the bill to pass, said Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield. It would have charged businesses 10 times the highest unemployment insurance tax rate per employee they terminate or suspend for failing to comply with a company mandate.
“We’re not being nearly as aggressive as a lot of people would like,” Massey said.
However, the bill says an employee fired for not taking the vaccine would be eligible for 20 weeks unemployment insurance benefits. They also would have to actively look for work.
A business would need to honor medical and religious exemptions if they impose any vaccine mandate, and a business also can’t force a subcontractor to impose a vaccine mandate.
Businesses also would not be allowed to require customers to be vaccinated.
The House needs to consider the changes made by the Senate before the legislation can be sent to Gov. Henry McMaster.
The move to ban vaccine requirements came as the conservative members of the House reacted to vaccine mandates for health care workers, businesses with 100 or more employees and federal contractors put in place by the Biden administration as the delta and omicron variants became the dominant COVID-19 strains in the country.
Mandates for large employers and federal contractors have been blocked by federal courts.
The move by South Carolina lawmakers comes as some large employers, such as Walmart, Delta Airlines and Google, have some form of a vaccine mandate in place.
“I think corporate America has decided to get involved in a lot of social policy, and so typically what we’re seeing is the mandate coming from big businesses who want to affect social policy, and they think you ought to be vaccinated so they’re imposing the requirement,” Massey said.
State Sen. Kevin Johnson, D-Clarendon, said it is often said that “government needs to stay out of private business affairs.”
He called the approved plan an overreach.
“I don’t understand why a private business can’t have their own rules and regulations,” Johnson said.
This story was originally published April 6, 2022 at 7:47 PM.
