Ford says U.S. salaried employees required to disclose COVID-19 vaccination status

Ford Motor Co. said on Tuesday its U.S. salaried employees would be required to submit their vaccination status against COVID-19 by Oct. 8 and that it had asked its hourly employees to do the same.

Ford follows rival General Motors in asking for vaccination status of its employees but not mandating the shots.

"This will aid our efforts to comply with federal COVID-19 vaccination requirements," Ford said in a statement.

UAW spokesman Brian Rothenberg confirmed that the process is voluntary for union's hourly members who work at the company.

The automaker's move comes as the Biden administration pursues sweeping measures to increase vaccination coverage in the United States, 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 that 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.

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

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 now 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 now.