LOUISVILLE, Ky. — If people are still on the fence about the COVID-19 vaccine, time’s running out.  

President Joe Biden plans to mandate vaccines for companies with more than 100 people. People who choose not to get vaccinated will have to test weekly or lose their job.  

“I think those employees run the risk that they will be seen as voluntarily unemployed, or also that they don’t meet the requirement of being ready, willing and able to work if there is this safety consideration,” labor attorney Robyn Smith said during Tuesday’s COVID-19 update with Louisville health officials.

Smith said anyone who quits their job over the vaccine mandate likely won’t be eligible for unemployment.

“An employer could also say, 'We discharged you for being insubordinate when we required a vaccine,'” she said. “And while that might seem kind of harsh, I think that those are arguments that the office of unemployment insurance is likely to accept.”

Employers can’t skirt around the new mandate, either.

“There’s a general rule contained in the OSHA scheme that you have to supply your employees with safe workplaces,” Smith said. “And as long as you have employees, you have that duty, and that’s part of what you accept in exchange for employing Kentuckians as your workers.”

Smith said there is some leeway for workers who have a medical reason for not getting the vaccine.

“What they should do is they should have very involved conversations with their doctors and see whether their doctors are willing to relate the risks of vaccination to the disability that they have and then document it very well,” she said.

But for anyone else who doesn’t have medical reasons or one of the limited religious exemptions, Smith said the mandate will likely stand.