By Hilary Russ
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Starbucks Corp will require its U.S. workers to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing in order to comply with new federal mandates, the company said in an update sent to employees on Monday.
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has set a new date of Feb. 9 for large employers to require either full vaccinations or weekly testing as the Omicron variant spreads quickly throughout the United States.
Starbucks’ approximately 220,000 U.S. employees must disclose their vaccination status by Jan. 10, according to a letter from Chief Operating Officer John Culver sent to employees on Dec. 27 and repeated in a weekly update on Monday.
If workers choose not to get vaccinated, they can be tested weekly instead and are responsible for acquiring their own OSHA-approved tests and submitting results.
(Reporting by Hilary Russ; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Mark Porter)
