Vaccine Mandate Takes Effect November 1st

October 14, 2021

The countdown is on for Fortune Bay Resort Casino, Bois Forte Tribal Government, and Bois Forte Business Development employees to get their first COVID-19 vaccine by November 1. Those employees who do not get the vaccine will be terminated or they can resign from their position.

Employees will be allowed to request exemptions for medical and religious reasons and Fortune Bay’s Human Resources Department is working with its legal counsel for guidance in reviewing these requests. A similar scenario is playing out for Bois Forte Development Corporation employees and those employed at the Tribal Government.

The vaccine mandate was approved by the Bois Forte Tribal Council in late September as rising cases of the delta variant have caused great concern as a record 27 COVID-19 cases were reported in less than two weeks. Furthermore, Chavers said that Native Americans are at higher risk of being admitted to the ICU or dying from COVID-19 as opposed to non-Natives.

“It’s alarming,” said Bois Forte Tribal Chair Cathy Chavers at a recent meeting. “We have to protect our communities in both Nett Lake and Lake Vermilion. We want everyone to respect our wishes and to take steps to turn around the disturbing trend we’re seeing with this pandemic. I wish it would just go away, but that’s not going to be happening anytime soon.”

And hence the reason, Chavers and others on the Tribal Council decided on the vaccine mandate.

“We know that there are employees out there that will not vaccinate and that is their choice as an individual,” said Chavers. “But we’re doing this to help keep our community safe.”

However, there could be some fallout with this order at Fortune Bay as there are currently 25-30 employees who have told their managers or directors that they will not be getting the vaccine.

“The numbers of those who said they will not get vaccinated have dropped, but any loss of staff will be tough to deal with,” said Interim General Manager Elizabeth Deegan. “We’ll assess the numbers again next week and see if we’ll have to alter our hours of operation. Hopefully, we won’t have to make that decision, but we also have to be realistic.”

The staff has already been stretched thin for many departments since Fortune Bay reopened June 1, 2020, after COVID-19 ceased operations in March of that year. That means many employees were asked to do more, which led to sagging employee morale and a tired staff that just couldn’t keep up. Eventually, some of our amenities were forced to go with reduced hours of operation, which meant staff would field many complaints from guests asking why that was. However, this scenario played out across the Iron Range, Region, State, and Nationally.

“These are certainly trying times,” said Director of Human Resources Beth Adams. “Vaccine mandates have been imposed at several larger companies and as one of the largest employees on the Iron Range, we are not excluded from having to make hard decisions like this.”

Adams said as of Wednesday, she was aware of five religious exemption requests and one medical request. The latter includes exemptions due to allergic reactions to vaccines in general, physical condition, or other medical circumstances. The religious exemption is not as cut and dried.

“Our attorney did some research and provided us with guidelines for reviewing religious requests and stipulated what should be included and what shouldn’t be considered,” said Adams.

In the meantime, those who do want to get vaccinated will have several chances to do so during October as the Bois Forte Mobile Vaccine Unit will be on-site to have staff administer the first dose. Several employees received their first vaccination Wednesday, October 13^th. The remaining dates are Thursday the 21st and Wednesday the 27th. 

Depending on the type of vaccine received, the second dose will be administered one month after the employee receives the first dose. To ward off too many employees who may feel the effects of the vaccine, a staggered model will be used to ensure departments are adequately staffed. In other words, no more than a couple of employees from one department would be scheduled on the same day in case of any adverse side effects from the vaccine.

Meanwhile, Fortune Bay directors will continue to closely gauge the departments that may be impacted by employees who are not planning to get vaccinated. 

Adams said Fortune Bay employees will have until Monday, October 18th to submit their resignation letters. This will help the management team know where departments will stand come November 1st.

“We will be reviewing the list of employees who are on the vaccinated list and have not given notice of their resignation and terminating those individuals for misconduct (failure to follow company policy) on November 1st,” said Adams. “We’d prefer notice and that employee records reflect resignations with notice rather than misconduct.”

Adams said these are not easy decisions to make, but added that management has to follow the directives of the Tribal Council.

“They too have tough decisions to make,” said Adams. “As Chairwoman Chavers said, we all thought we’d be done with this pandemic by now, but unfortunately no one knows when we’ll get back to a sense of normalcy.”

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