Whirlpool To Pay Employees $1,000 To Get Vaccinated

(RTTNews) - Whirlpool is offering to pay its employees $1,000 to get vaccinated for COVID-19.

The home appliance maker joins a long list of US employers who are offering incentives to employees to get them vaccinated for coronavirus, an effort to curb the pandemic in the country as the highly transmissible delta variant continues to wreak havoc.

"We have strongly encouraged all of our employees to get vaccinated since the doses were made available earlier this year. Several onsite vaccines drives have been hosted at Whirlpool Corporation locations around the world — including our global headquarters and many of our U.S. manufacturing sites," according to a Whirpool statement.

The vaccine incentive comes at a time when the US government is planning to make it mandatory for large companies to make their entire workforce vaccinated or subject unvaccinated staff to weekly testing. Companies will face hefty fines of up to $14,000 per violation.

"Our employees' health and safety remains our top priority. Throughout this pandemic they have been working tirelessly to serve our consumers, who are depending on our products more than ever to clean, cook and provide proper food and medicine storage in their homes, and we are working to ensure we can deliver," the company added.

Whirlpool was already offering incentives to employees to get vaccinated, however, has now increased it to $1,000. The company said the increased vaccine bonus will apply to workers who were previously vaccinated as well as newly vaccinated ones.