After the passage of Florida Statute 381.00317 on November 17, 2021, employers with employees in Florida were left with new rules relating to COVID-19 vaccination policies, in many instances contrary to the signaled direction of federal government rules and guidance. Moreover, this new Florida law includes vague language, few definitions, and a promise of future clarification despite immediate applicability.
As previously discussed, the new Florida law prohibits private employers from imposing a “COVID-19 vaccination mandate” without providing individual exemptions allowing an employee to “opt out” of such mandate based on one of five reasons. While several questions still remain about implementation of this new law, the Florida Department of Legal Affairs, a department in the attorney general’s office, issued a clarification that provides employers with some guidance. Notably, the following terms have been defined in Rule 2ER21-1: “department,” “Employee,” “independent contractor,” “private employer,” and “functional equivalent of termination.” Additionally, the Department of Legal Affairs issued FAQs that drill down on some of the questions that private employers have had in navigating the vaccine mandate landscape.
New Definitions
As noted above, the emergency rule provides some definitions to be used in interpreting the Florida law.
Department
First, the term department, which is charged with enforcing the law, is defined as the Department of Legal Affairs.
Employee
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