Ford asking salaried workers for vaccination status

Ford has asked that all salaried employees in the United States share their COVID-19 vaccination status by Oct. 8 as the company works to comply with President Biden’s testing and vaccination mandate he announced earlier this month.

The auto giant said it will remain voluntary for hourly employees on whether they reveal their vaccination status, according to a Reuters report.

“This will aid our efforts to comply with federal COVID-19 vaccination requirements and, assess the overall vaccination level of our employee population in order to determine appropriate measures to support employee safety,” Ford spokeswoman Monique Brentley told CNBC in a statement.

Biden announced a COVID-19 plan on Sept. 9 that mandates that all federal employees and contractors be vaccinated and employees at companies with 100 or more employees be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing.

Ford CEO Jim Farley said that vaccinations and the mandate are critical to protecting the health of his workers.

“We’re really excited about the mandate,” Farley said in a CNBC appearance on Tuesday. “We’ll work with our union partners, it requires collective bargaining in some cases. … We’ll work through this.”

Last month, General Motors began to require that all salaried U.S. employees inform the company of their vaccination status.