Ford asks salaried employees to disclose vaccination status

29 September 2021 - 12:08 By Reuters
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Jim Farley, CEO of Ford Motor Company, wants employees to get vaccinated.
Jim Farley, CEO of Ford Motor Company, wants employees to get vaccinated.
Image: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Ford Motor Co on Tuesday became the second Detroit automaker to ask US salaried employees to reveal their Covid-19 vaccination status in a bid to comply with wider federal guidelines.

Ford said salaried employees were required to submit their vaccination status against Covid-19 by October 8, but the process was voluntary for its hourly employees represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW) union.

The automaker's move comes as President Joe Biden's administration pursues sweeping measures to increase vaccination coverage in the US while pushing large employers to have their workers inoculated or tested weekly.

Separately, CEO Jim Farley said in a CNBC interview that the company's leadership team was vaccinated against Covid-19 and Ford was conducting a survey to know how many employees had been vaccinated.

"When it comes to the larger population of Ford, we want people to get vaccinated," Farley said, adding the company would work with UAW, which had so far resisted the effort to make vaccinations compulsory.

UAW represents about 58,000 hourly employees in the US, as per the company's latest annual filing.

Larger rival General Motors Co in August had asked for vaccination status of its salaried employees.

Chip shortage

Farley, in the CNBC interview, also said the ongoing semiconductor chip shortage would probably last through the end of next year.

He said things were getting better but Ford was still unable to meet demand for its vehicles.

"We are improving our shipments to dealers and our inventories are going very fast," said Farley, who took over the automaker's reins last year.

Ford's production was hit in the second quarter due to a fire at a plant owned by automobile chipmaker Renesas Electronics Corp in March. Farley said the facility was up to speed again.


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