If your employer mandates you get a vaccine or lose your job should that employer also be held liable for any adverse reactions? State Senator Rob Standridge thanks they should be. He has introduced a new bill in the Oklahoma legislature to do just that. Liability laws for businesses are nothing new. For instance, if you work for a company that provides work trucks they have some liability if they give you a defective vehicle that causes you to have an accident.
Sen Standridge sat down with Andrew Speno to give his thoughts on the new legislation and some of his reasoning behind it. Sen Standridge said SB 1106 was created out of frustration with vaccine mandates from the state and federal levels. Talking about SB 1106 he said it “is a creative way to interject a little bit of liability.” If an employer requires employees to take a medication they would be liable to carry a million dollar insurance policy for every employee mandated.
Standridge who has been a health professional for thirty years says his motivation for doing this was his wish to “slow down” mandates being proposed. He thinks adding liability for companies will provide that. He thinks his thirty years as a pharmacist and studying the science firsthand of vaccines helps make him an effective voice in pushing back against some of the steps being taken to politicize the choice of whether or not to receive the vaccine.
Businesses are already liable for employee safety. From the equipment, they buy to the SOP’s they implement. These things and more all carry some level of liability for employers in every state. Vaccine mandates should be no exception. It is a logical step to protect employees from injuries regardless of how rare the perception may seem in the moment.
