Des Moines, Iowa — State officials say over two-hundred Iowans have claimed unemployment benefits after being fired for not complying with workplace COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
A state law passed in late October allows people to get unemployment benefits if their request to be exempt from a vaccination requirement due to religious or medical reasons is denied. Drake University professor Denise Hill wrote a book about workplace vaccine mandates. She says the number could have been higher if judges hadn’t issued temporary orders blocking the federal vaccination deadline many U.S. workers faced on January 4th.
According to Iowa Workforce Development, 211 people fired from an Iowa businesses for refusing to get vaccinated filed for unemployment. More than a third of them worked in health care and social assistance. About a fifth worked in manufacturing.
