Posted on 05/28/2021 7:24:16 AM PDT by Capt. Tom
Florida has no plans to exempt cruise lines from its law that forbids businesses from asking customers for proof of vaccination, and cruise ships in violation of the law could be fined $5,000 per passenger who is asked to provide such proof, according to Gov. Ron DeSantis' office.
The statement comes one day after Celebrity Cruises became the first line to get CDC approval to resume big-ship cruising from U.S. waters, with the Celebrity Edge slated to depart from Fort Lauderdale on June 26 on a seven-day Caribbean sailing.
In an email, DeSantis press secretary, Christina Pushaw, said that the CDC's vaccine guidance for cruise lines was "coercive" and pushing lines to violate Florida state law.
"The CDC has no legal authority to set any sort of requirements to cruise," she said. "Moreover, the CDC went on record admitting that the federal government chose not to make a legal requirement for vaccine passports. Now they provide coercive guidance, in the absence of any federal law or congressional authorization. In short, the CDC is pushing cruise ships to violate Florida law, in order to comply with CDC 'guidance' that is not legally binding."
Pushaw said the office cannot comment on the specifics of Celebrity's restart because the state is in mediation with the CDC.
"We hope to reach an outcome whereby all cruise lines will be able to set sail in compliance with Florida law," she said.
As per an April 2 law that was first put in place as an executive order by DeSantis, Florida does not allow businesses to ask for proof of vaccination, which is a central component of cruise line resumption plans.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) brands, for example, require all passengers to be vaccinated, while others, like Royal Caribbean International, have said that anyone eligible for a vaccine will have to be inoculated while those who are not, such as children under 12, must have a negative PCR test.
Celebrity is able to restart without a test sailing because it has promised that 95% of passengers and crew on the Edge will be vaccinated.
When asked about the law, Royal Caribbean Group said, "we continue to work with local and state governments to facilitate a return to service by July with fully vaccinated crew and guests who are eligible for vaccinations."
NCLH chief Frank Del Rio said earlier this month that the law "is an issue" and said that if the company's ships can't operate from the state they'd launch elsewhere. DeSantis brushed off those comments, saying that if NCLH didn't want to sail from Florida, another line would take its spot.
"We have a whole bunch of people who are itching to do business in the state of Florida," he added.
In any case, I doubt the law will be upheld, private companies can deny service for many reasons, including health and measures. In any case, the lines will find a state willing to accommodate cruises. Replacing the big three lines will be an impossibility, but the terminals can be used for something else. And the land based workers can learn to code. To say the least an impractical position from Florida.
I am not disagreeing with you about Covid. I am simply pointing out that the panic porn media will have a field day when a few people inevitably test positive.
Now that DeSantis has weighed in on it, it is guaranteed. They will latch on to anything to destroy DeSantis.
Most people are missing the point. On the face, it seems like a private business vs government issue.
People who are OK with this were born about 100 years too late, and would’ve been at home with the Nazis in the 1930s. This is the move toward dividing the population into “clean” vs “unclean”, as they divided Jews from the others.
It’s a big deal, and it’ll gradually become a bigger deal as the weeks and months progress.
Also note: Corporations aren’t really private businesses any more; they’re extensions, and emissaries, of the Marxist government. We have to get out of the mindset that these large corporations are separate from government; they are not. Those were the olden days back when we were America.
Now I finally have a reason to take a cruise.
Papers please: NO!
BTW, given the number of illegal entries on our southern border, your suggestion that TB screenings shouldn't be given to health care and hospitality workers if foolish. And, though I don't like it, is the abolishment of a negative covid test to fly to the US.
It is still proven 100% accurate that people that misspell the HIPAA acronym have no clue what the act pertains to!
The following was pulled from a law firm, the link follows:
While employers in most states have the right to require the COVID-19 vaccine, do they have the right to ask employees if they received the shot or request proof of the shot?
Jascha Clark is a shareholder at Ray Quinney & Nebeker, a law firm in Salt Lake City. He says there is guidance from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, EEOC, on this topic.
“Employers may ask employees if they’ve been vaccinated against COVID-19 and may also ask employees to provide proof of vaccination, and the reason that this is allowed is because the EEOC generally prohibits inquiries that are disability related,” Clark said. “But an employee’s answer doesn’t necessarily reveal a medical condition. There are lots of reasons why they may not have been vaccinated. If employers do decide to require proof of the vaccine or even ask about it, what they could do is instruct employees to only provide information regarding the vaccine and no other medical information.”
Clark says he has been counseling clients who employers really do have a legitimate business reason to keep track of employees who have been vaccinated for safety reasons.
“Employers can then use this information, together with the risk of transmission by people who’ve been vaccinated, to inform decisions about reopening and expanding the number of individuals in the area and that sort of thing.”
But does asking for proof of vaccination violate the Health insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, more commonly known as HIPAA? Clark says it doesn’t.
“Generally, HIPAA prevents healthcare providers from sharing information. Here, you’re asking the employee themselves to provide the information and so it’s their information- they’re able to share it if they want to,” Clark said.
However, if an employee answers that they haven’t received the vaccine, an employer may be required to adjust for them, Clark says.
“Because employers are required under Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA, regulations to generally provide a safe working environment, employers would take the necessary steps to try to find alternative work- perhaps telework for employees or changing their work environment so that they’re not working with people to increase the level of safety.”
So what if an employee really doesn’t want to provide their employer with information about whether or not they received the vaccine?
“We counsel mostly employers, and the counsel that I would give in that situation is that employers should take each issue with an employee on a case by case basis,” Clark says. “Have a private sit-down with the employee; try to figure out what their specific issues are.”
However, a workplace-mandated vaccine could have other implications for employers, he explains.
There is a “possibility that any side effects from a mandated vaccine could fall under a worker’s compensation, and it’s hard to tell. Even though there have been past pandemics, there hasn’t really been this widespread rollout of vaccines and other safety precautions, so we don’t know yet exactly how it will be treated.”
Even though employees can mandate the vaccine, Clark says he is counseling employers to incentivize getting it, such as giving days off around the time employees receive the vaccine or offering gift cards, rather than strictly requiring it.
Skordas says he doesn’t see any problem with employers asking employees if they got the vaccine or not.
The bigger question, he says, is whether or not they can do something about it.
“Whether they can sanction or discipline an employee for not getting the vaccine, but I think it’s a reasonable request for an employer to ask, have you been vaccinated. Especially if its a food services company where an employee is dealing with the public on a regular basis,” Skordas explains.
He explains that “an inquiry about if you have the virus, if you’ve been exposed to the virus, whether now you’ve been vaccinated from the virus” are all fair things for an employer to ask.
“It could relate to whether or not the company stays open for a certain period of time or needs to quarantine or something like that.”
Skordas says an employer may not be able to ask things like if the employee has had other conditions that may be personal, but if they’ve received a vaccine for the COVID-19 virus is really a public safety question.
“It deals with the safety of the other employees, so in that respect, it’s different than asking if they’ve had a certain disease or condition in their lifetime… there are plenty of public safety reasons why an employer may want to know whether employees can be vaccinated, especially if they deal one-on-one and face-to-face with the public.”
“Cruise execs: “We’re making money, what’s the problem?”
Public: “How can you be making money when we’re not cruising??””
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All of the big 3 cruise ship lines CEOs made at least 10 mullion a year during the Pandemic.
You can red about some of that below.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/tourism-cruises/article251692728.html
Wow. $10M. They got their money, who cares about the health of the company.
Good
IOW no yellow stars for free Americans in Florida
It’s not...
It is actually more than 10 million since some CEOs get stock options thrown in.
Cruise Industry News had an article on those salaries about 6 weeks ago but I didn't dig it out.
What struck me as odd is the Cruise Lines are running on Billions of borrowed money, and I would have expected a lower profile.
Of course now the creditors don't want to "rock the boat" as they don't want to lose their Billions of loaned dollars.-Tom
I don’t think so...
Territorial sea, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is a belt of coastal waters extending at most 12 nautical miles (22 km; 14 mi) from the baseline (usually the mean low-water mark) of a coastal state.
Cruise ships tied to the dock are subject to local, state and federal law until they reach international waters. The passport checks at the beginning are for confirming you can get back into the states legally (whatever “legal” means nowadays...)
You are likely right
Businesses are subject to “unlawful business practices” regulations and lawsuits all the time. This would appear to be no different ... although a much more serious matter with potentially significant downrange negative effects on American society and the quality of American life.
It’s pronounced “HIPPA” but it’s actually HIPAA - Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. ;-)
I agree. And once beyond the limits the FBI still has jurisdiction over crimes involving US citizens.
Like it or not, states have the power to regulate business practices in their state. Ever try buying booze in a dry county or after hours? It's none of the government's business what time a business conducts a transaction, right?
There are a myriad of state laws interfering with business practices and they usually work against conservative principles of limited government interference of the marketplace. This one happens to work in favor of the individual against corporate overreach. It's a small win for the good guys.
Regardless of which side you view it from, the state of Florida has the legal right to pass a law prohibiting the business practice of requiring vaccination as a condition of boarding a cruise ship at Florida ports.
So De Santis sues the federal government to allow the cruise industry to re-start. And then he passes a law in his own state that basically makes it impossible for them to re-start anyway.
Is every GOP politician a total ass-hat?
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