Florida Legislature FAILS to Deliver on Promises of Governor Ron DeSantis to Protect Florida Jobs, Individual Choice, and Medical Freedom in Special Session
HB 1B and SB 2B Filed for Special Session Strike a Blow to Freedom instead of For It
Contact Your Florida Legislators NOW to Ask them to:
· Amend HB 1B and SB 2B to Actually Prohibit Employer COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates (no government exemption forms needed)
· Prohibit Employers from Requiring Employees to Reveal their Vaccination Status to Their Employers Just Like These Same Businesses are Already Prohibited by Law in the Vaccine Passport Ban From Asking Customers to Reveal Their Vaccination Status
· Prohibit Discrimination Against Those Who Don’t Want or Need a COVID-19 Vaccine
Standing behind a lectern displaying the words “Protect Florida Jobs” in a press conference in Clearwater Florida on October 21, 2021, Governor Ron DeSantis announced a special legislative session would take place in November to protect Floridians’ rights to protect their jobs, their livelihoods, and their freedom from employer issued vaccine mandates.
Governor DeSantis’s intention articulated to the public for the special session could not have been clearer.
· “We believe in having basic medical freedom and individual choice and that your right to earn a living should not be contingent upon COVID shots, and so that is what we need.”
· “From day one we have said we will offer to all but mandate it on none. We want individuals to determine what is right for them.”
· “We took very strong action against things like vaccine passports. That was the right decision to do because we didn’t want people to have their freedom circumscribed based on showing papers.”
· “At the end of the day, you shouldn’t be discriminated against based on your health decisions. We want to provide protection for people. We want to make it clear that in Florida, your right to earn a living is not contingent upon whatever choices you’re making in terms of these injections.”
· “On a principled basis we have responsibility to stand up for people’s individual rights and individual freedoms and make sure in the state of Florida people can make those decisions.”
· “It’s not a free choice if you say get a shot or lose your job.”
The direction communicated to the public for the special session was further cemented in a press conference with Senate President Wilton Simpson and House of Representatives Speaker Chris Sprowls in Zephyrhills on Monday, November 8th.
· “And at the end of the day, we want people to be able to make informed decisions for themselves, but we've got to stop bossing people around. We've got to stop the coercion. We've got to stop trying to browbeat people, from the very beginning, you know, we said, let's not put people down, let's lift people up. And so that's what we're gonna be doing. We're gonna be saving a lot of jobs in the state of Florida. We're gonna be striking a blow for freedom.”
· “And so we want to treat people with respect. We want to make sure people have dignity in Florida and that's what we're doing here.”
Unfortunately, the bills designated to address the problems of employer vaccine mandates in the special session happening from November 15th-19th, HB 1B and SB 2B, don’t embody these sentiments of Governor DeSantis or those of Floridians who want and deserve real freedom.
In fact, these bills actually give the green light to all employers in Florida to enact COVID-19 vaccine mandates as long as employees are offered limited discriminatory “exemptions” contingent upon employees using official government forms.
These 2 bills don’t prohibit vaccine mandates. Instead, they are literally a state endorsement of employer vaccine mandates and provide the roadmap to employers on what they need to do to legally mandate vaccines of their employees. Two other bills, HB 3B and SB 4B would not even be necessary to protect privacy of employee health information if employers were stopped from issuing vaccine mandates on their employees or inquiring about an employee’s vaccination status.
ACTION NEEDED
1) Contact your Florida State Representative and State Senator and ask them to:
· Amend HB 1B and SB 2B to Actually Prohibit Employer COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates (no government exemption forms needed)
· Prohibit employers from requiring employees to reveal their vaccination status to their employers just like these same businesses are already prohibited by law in the vaccine passport ban from asking customers to reveal their vaccination status
· Prohibit Discrimination Against Those Who Don't Want or Need a COVID-19 Vaccine
Suggested talking points are below. It is ok to send emails and leave messages over the weekend.
Legislative contact information: you can login to the NVIC Advocacy Portal at http://NVICAdvocacy.org, click on the “State Teams” tab and then “My State,” and your elected officials are automatically posted on the right side of the page. You can click on their name to display contact information and social media accounts that you can follow. You can also find your representatives here and senators here.
2) Contact members of the three committees HB 1B and SB 2B are assigned to, House Commerce, Senate Judiciary, and Senate Appropriations, and ask them to:
· Amend HB 1B and SB 2B to Actually Prohibit Employer COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates (no government exemption forms needed)
· Prohibit employers from requiring employees to reveal their vaccination status to their employers just like these same businesses are already prohibited by law in the vaccine passport ban from asking customers to reveal their vaccination status
· Prohibit Discrimination Against Those Who Don't Want or Need a COVID-19 Vaccine
Committee links, members, phone and emails, and talking points are listed below. It is ok to send emails and leave messages over the weekend. You can send an email to all members of a committee in a block – emails are listed in a block below each contact table. That is only three emails needed!
3) Special session will move very quickly, and as the bills move, we will be putting out updates on what actions to take. Register for and login to the NVIC Advocacy Portal at http://NVICAdvocacy.org OFTEN to check for updates.
4) Sign up for our text alert program to receive urgent updates by texting “Florida” to 202-618-5488.
5) Share this email or this link to ask friends and family to contact their legislators too. https://nvicadvocacy.org/members/Resources/NewsletterArchives/AmendFloridaHB1BSB2B.aspx
TALKING POINTS [Customize email note and phone calls by explaining how employer vaccine mandates are negatively affecting you or those close to you personally]
I appreciate legislators’ efforts in this special session to save jobs and livelihoods that are being destroyed by intrusive employer COVID-19 vaccine mandates, however I strongly disagree with the approach of HB 1B and SB 2B.
HB 1B/SB 2B give the green light and roadmap to all employers in Florida to enact COVID-19 vaccine mandates conditional upon allowing employees limited discriminatory “exemptions” to these mandates. These exemptions are contingent on the use of government issued papers/forms.
Instead, the legislature should pass bills that preserve true “medical freedom” and “individual choice” without allowing “people to have their freedom circumscribed based on showing papers” as Governor DeSantis envisioned and told the people in recent press conferences. He said, “From day one we have said we will offer to all but mandate it on none.” I agree with his statement “we want people to be able to make informed decisions for themselves, but we've got to stop bossing people around. We've got to stop the coercion. We've got to stop trying to browbeat people.”
Employers should not be allowed to mandate invasive medical procedures like a COVID-19 vaccine that can cause injury and death. As of October 29, 2021, there have been 18,078 deaths and 856,919 adverse events reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.
HB 1B and SB 2B are Discriminatory.
Employees should not have to reveal their private medical or vaccination decisions as a condition of employment as these bills require. This crosses a line by employers. Legislators should be protecting us from employers forcing us to disclose this information to keep our jobs.
HB 1B and SB 2B are discriminatory against employees who don’t want to disclose their vaccination status to their employer or to those who don’t want or need a COVID-19 vaccination by requiring them to obtain and submit government exemption papers to their employers. This is not “the dignity and respect” promised to us by Governor DeSantis.
It is well documented that vaccinated people still contract and spread COVID-19 but restrictions in these bills requiring testing or using masks or other types of PPE are only targeting vaccine exempted employees.
There is no protection for employees in this bill or in law for those who don’t want to disclose their vaccination status to their employer or for those who don’t want or need a COVID-19 vaccination from being subjected to discrimination, segregation, harassment, coercion and penalties in the workplace for their decision. There is nothing stopping an employer from targeting and making things so miserable for an employee who submits an exemption that they may have no choice but to quit.
HB 1B and SB 2B deviate from and are in stark contrast to what was passed last session in the vaccine passport ban (SB 2006) put into Section 381.00316, Florida Statutes. This law prohibits these very same businesses from requiring “patrons or customers to provide any documentation certifying COVID-19 vaccination or post-infection recovery to gain access to, entry upon, or service from the business’ operations in this state.”
Medical exemptions are limited to be being written by practitioners in Florida only. Many people who value freedom are moving to Florida from out of state and their medical records are from out of state and people who have an out of state medical specialist are excluded.
Women who are pregnant or planning on being pregnant should never have to disclose this information to an employer yet this is required as a condition for a pregnancy related medical exemption to a COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The requirement alone is discriminatory and this information can be used by an employer to discriminate against a pregnant woman. Discrimination based on pregnancy status is prohibited by The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) enacted in 1978 as it is considered sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Also, the Florida Civil Rights Act (FCRA) Title XLIV Chapter 760 makes it unlawful for an employer to segregate or discriminate against anyone on the basis of sex or pregnancy.
The passage of HB 1B and SB 2B could result in most businesses in the state mandating COVID-19 vaccination to maintain their COVID-19 liability protection thus creating two classes of workers subjected to different employment standards. The law passed 768.38 -Liability protections for COVID-19-related claims last session through SB 72, requires a court when examining whether an employer is liable for COVID-19 related claims to determine whether “the defendant made a good faith effort to substantially comply with authoritative or controlling government-issued health standards or guidance at the time the cause of action accrued.” Because Centers for Disease Control issued guidance include COVID-19 vaccinations, it could be interpreted by the courts that unless an employer adds a vaccine mandate as allowed in HB 1B or SB 2B, a business could lose their liability protections. This law should be fixed to exclude vaccine mandates.
A better solution would be to amend Section 381.00316, Florida Statutes, already passed last session in Section 18 of SB 2006 to include employees in the protection already granted to customers of the very same businesses. Also remove the exceptions so health care and long-term care providers could be protected.
(1) A business entity, as defined in s. 768.38 to include any business operating in this state, shall not require employees, contractors, patrons or customers to provide any documentation certifying COVID-19 vaccination or post-infection recovery to gain or retain employment or contract work, to gain access to, entry upon, or service from the business’ operations in this state.
(5) This section does not apply to a health care provider as defined in s. 768.38; a provider licensed or certified under s. 393.17, part III of chapter 401, or part IV of chapter 468; or a provider with an active health care clinic exemption under s. 400.9935.
Additionally, it is important to add civil rights like protections to prevent discrimination, segregation, coercion, harassment and punishment of those who don’t want or need a COVID-19 vaccination or don’t want to disclose their vaccination status similar to those protections included in SB 364 last session.
Freedom is keeping employers and state government out of employees’ private health care decisions period.
What Freedom is NOT: being required to secure government papers from the state health department to submit to your employer revealing private medical decisions and information to keep your job.
Please amend HB 1B and SB 2B in favor of real freedom.
HB 3B and SB 4B would not even be necessary to protect privacy of employee health information if employers were stopped from issuing vaccine mandates or inquiring about an employee’s vaccination status.
COMMITTEE CONTACT INFORMATION
There are 3 Florida Legislative Committees to Contact about HB 1B and SB 2B
Florida House of Representatives – Commerce Committee
Commerce Committee | Florida House of Representatives (myfloridahouse.gov)
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
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Florida Senate Judiciary Committee
Judiciary Committee Page - The Florida Senate (flsenate.gov)
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
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Florida Senate Appropriations Committee
Appropriations Committee Page - The Florida Senate (flsenate.gov)
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]