T-Mobile will require all of its office workers, with limited exceptions, to be fully vaccinated by April 2, saying in a memo that those who don’t upload proof of full COVID-19 vaccination by the deadline “will be separated from T-Mobile.”
Retail workers and those with approved or pending religious or medical exemptions are not subject to the deadline, the company said in the companywide memo Friday morning, a copy of which was first published by The T-Mo Report.
T-Mobile confirmed the details of its policy in response to GeekWire’s inquiry.
“We understand that this is a deeply personal decision for some employees but we believe that taking this step will put us in the best position to protect our T-Mobile community,” the company said in a statement.
The move adds to a broader national discussion over vaccine mandates in corporate settings. The Biden administration last week said it would abandon a regulation imposing a vaccine mandate at companies with more than 100 employees, after the regulation was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Like many other tech companies, T-Mobile is currently requiring anyone who accesses its offices to be vaccinated. The new policy goes further in applying the requirement to any office worker who is employed by the company and not subject to an exception under the policy.
Some other companies have longer timetables for termination under their vaccine mandates. Google, for example, plans to put employees on unpaid leave for up to six months before letting them go under its policy.
“We have weighed this issue carefully with the benefit of input from our medical advisors and insights from many other large companies with similar polices, and it’s clear that this is the right thing to do to help save lives and prevent serious illness,” T-Mobile said in the memo to employees, as published by The T-Mo Report.
As an interim step, those who do not receive a first dose by Feb. 21 will be placed on unpaid leave, according to the memo. For both deadlines, the company requires employees to upload proof of vaccination to an internal database. After their second dose, they need to get a digital “Magenta Pass” indicating full vaccination.
