Some utilities offer incentives encouraging workers to get COVID-19 vaccine

Two public utilities in Nebraska, Lincoln Electric System and Nebraska Public Power District, are deploying incentives to encourage workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Trish Owen, Lincoln Electric's, or LES', vice president of corporate operations, said in a recent interview that 72% of critical utility workers, as of mid-January, said they planned to take the vaccine once available, while the remaining 28% declined.

Owen suggested some critical employees do not want the vaccine for potentially "very politicized" reasons or are uncertain about the science, while others are weighing what they perceive as the risk of negative vaccine side effects compared to a mild case of COVID-19, following either a mild case that a family member or they themselves overcame.

In response, LES has tried to educate workers on the vaccine, including noting that "our healthcare workers are taking the vaccine, and the side effects for the most part are, you know, the sore arm, maybe a little bit of a temperature, maybe a little bit of fatigue, but it hasn't been anything dramatic," Owen said.

"Our hope is that as they see their coworkers getting the vaccine and doing well, and getting that second dose and doing well that, that they'll start changing their minds," Owen added. "But that's such a personal decision right now, they have to kind of make that decision for themselves and their families."

Regardless, LES does not plan to mandate the vaccine. Owen noted that the utility also does not mandate the influenza vaccine.

Nebraska Public Power District, or NPPD, is taking a similar approach to educating workers. As of late January, 53% of employees told NPPD that they would take the vaccine if available, according to Tim Arlt, the utility's vice president of corporate strategy and innovation. An additional 27% of workers said they might take it, while the remaining employees said they would not.

Arlt emphasized NPPD's approach that this should be a personal decision, even if the utility tries to encourage its employees through education efforts and wellness program redemptions. The executive acknowledged that the question is "the great ethical moral dilemma that organizations face" right now.

"In fact, we're taking the position now [that employees] don't even have to inform us if they did take it or didn't take it," Arlt said, noting that future work-from-home decisions will not be based on an employee's vaccination status. "That's a challenge we'll have to work through in the future, because we certainly know there are a number of phase 1B critical infrastructure workers that have said, 'I'm not taking the vaccine, even if it's offered.'"

"That doesn't mean they lose their job, lose their seniority, or lose any stature in our organization, because the decision they make personally, we're just going to have to find a way to work and deal with it," said Arlt, who also serves as the utility's emergency director and manager for pandemic response.

Both utilities plan to entice workers to get the shot through existing wellness programs typically used to encourage health- and fitness-conscious activities in exchange for points, which can later be exchanged for various rewards.

Becoming fully vaccinated at either utility will give each worker 1,000 points. At NPPD, accruing and redeeming 10,000 points will get an employee a half-day of paid time off, whereas at LES that same point value can be converted into a discounted health insurance premium.

"We figured this was a nice little incentive for maybe somebody that's getting close to thinking they want to do it, but are not sure," Owen said. "Maybe that 1,000 points will help them get in there."

Few utilities contacted by S&P Global Market Intelligence responded to inquiries about vaccine policies. Idaho Power Co. and Austin Energy said they would not be requiring employee vaccinations.

Idaho Power spokesperson Maria Willacy said the utility "is strongly encouraging employees to educate themselves on the COVID-19 vaccine and make the decision regarding vaccination in consultation with their healthcare provider, but the company has no plan to mandate" the vaccine.

Energy workers as a broad group were recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to be vaccinated under any given state's distribution phase 1C, alongside workers in the transportation, food service, legal, media and public safety sectors, among others.

However, in a Jan. 13 letter, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission asked the CDC to raise the prioritization to phase 1B for certain critical utility workers, "specifically, highly trained electrical field workers, power plant operators, transmission and distribution grid operators, and personnel who procure the energy needed to balance the grid on a moment-to-moment basis."

"Those workers' duties can only be performed on-site, usually in close quarters, where full adherence to social distancing guidelines is impossible," the commissioners' letter explained, noting that "these utility employees can be counted as among the most critical among the American workforce."

As of March 16, most categories of utility and energy workers remain under phase 1C for vaccination eligibility, according to the CDC's website, with some categories related to petroleum production in phase 1B.