Local Restaurant is Now Requiring Employees to Get Vaccinated For Their Safety

With COVID-19 cases spiking in the area, some local businesses are requiring their employees to get vaccinated in order to work.

According to CBS 7, the Hand Café in Midland is one of those businesses.

Owner Kate Wolbert has told all employees that if they want to work in her café then they have to be vaccinated.

“Just in our little community here all of my staff is vaccinated and we offered an incentive that if everyone onboard got vaccinated then they would get a cash incentive and the same way in my husband’s main business, so that is great and it gives my staff a really great feeling. They don’t have to wonder if their co-worker is or isn’t vaccinated," said Wolbert.

She says she did lose one employee by making that requirement, but she did provide education of the vaccine to her staff.

“So we did lose an employee unfortunately and this person knows that they’re welcome back anytime and in keeping with the complications of everything going on right now. It’s not my thinking that I should force my beliefs on anyone. It is a private business so I’m able to require it of my staff, but I’m not going to force my beliefs. I’m going to encourage education”, said Wolbert.

But vaccine education in this day and age have a tendency to cause division.

“It’s something that is polarizing if we let it be but we don’t have to let it be. We can look at vaccination and look at the protocols that businesses are taking and people are taking, individuals, as a way to extend our love for our community and take the efforts that we need to do to take care of each other in a pandemic” said Wolbert.

Wolbert said she will be requiring all guests to wear a mask in her store beginning today (August 23, 2021).