GM requires U.S. salaried employees to disclose vaccination status

DETROIT — General Motors has required all salaried employees in the U.S. to disclose their coronavirus vaccination status to help guide its safety protocols, the automaker confirmed Thursday.

"The reporting of our employees' vaccination status is helping GM Medical assess the overall immunity of our employee population and determine when GM should relax or strengthen certain COVID-19 safety protocols as recommended by the CDC and OSHA, such as mask wearing, physical distancing and facility occupancy rates," said spokeswoman Maria Raynal.

Employees who said they were vaccinated through a confidential online tool were required to submit proof of vaccination by Aug. 23. GM has 42,000 salaried employees in the U.S. The requirement was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

GM has not yet required its 46,000 hourly workers to report their vaccination status, though they can disclose their status voluntarily, Raynal told Automotive News.

"In an effort to improve our data collection, we took the first step with our U.S. salaried employees to put a process in place for mandatory reporting. We will maintain the voluntary reporting of vaccine status and encourage our hourly employees to continue to report in the voluntary system," she said.

Since vaccines have become available, GM has encouraged its work force to get vaccinated and hosted drives at assembly plants.

Many employees have returned to the workplace after working remotely for part of the pandemic. The company hasn't outlined a definitive return-to-work plan. Instead, GM launched a remote work standard called "work appropriately."

The guideline is designed to give employees the flexibility to work from wherever they are most efficient, GM said, and it gives the automaker access to a broader talent pool beyond its office locations.