The Huntsville-Madison County Chamber of Commerce is concerned about the federal COVID vaccine mandate, but it's more worried that state lawmakers will make the situation worse.
"We can either lose a contract or be sued by our employees," Board Chair Jeff Gronberg said.
That is the situation many businesses fear they will be in because of state lawmakers.
"What we don't want to see is legislation at the state level that conflicts with legislation at the national level and puts us in a position where we are having to decide between one or the other," Gronberg said. "It puts us in a no-win situation."
But, state lawmakers say business owners are already in a lose-lose scenario.
"This COVID thing have people scared to death, and this overreach of executive power have people scared to death. These are all legitimate fears," Rep. Mike Ball said. "Right now, employers are stuck in the middle. Damned if they do. Damned if they don't."
More than a dozen bills were filed against the federal COVID vaccine mandate during this week's special session for redistricting. The chamber says the bills that are being discussed would create a "civil liability nightmare."
On Tuesday, the Senate passed a bill that allows employees to claim exemption of a required vaccine for medical or religious reasons. The Alabama House Committee is expected to discuss the Senate bill against the federal COVID vaccine mandate on Wednesday. It may be up for a vote for the full House by Thursday at the earliest.
Ball says he expects the bill to pass.
The chamber says that just puts businesses in double jeopardy.
"All we are asking them to do is to not pass a law that would cause a conflict with what we have to do from a national and from a contract standpoint that causes us to have existing exposures to lawsuits that frankly aren't going to be helpful to anybody," Gronberg explained.
Right now, businesses have some protection against frivolous lawsuits concerning COVID. That's thanks to Sen. Arthur Orr's bill that was signed into law in February. Ball says that same law is now their downfall.
"Well, turns out we might have gone too far on that. So now, we've got to undo what we did without thinking it through like we should," Ball said.
Ball hopes they'll be able to come up with a solution, but he's not sure what that looks like yet.
"Right now, exactly what the legislature will do is nebulous at best," Ball said.
The chamber is hoping the state legislature's solution is mainly backing up the governor and attorney general's legal battles against the federal vaccine mandate.
Attorney General Steve Marshall told Â鶹Çø his office is focusing its legal battle on whether or not it's constitutional for President Joe Biden to tell employers what to do with their employees.
"I think the solutions that are being put in place are a little bit too broad and are affecting us too much," Gronberg said.
But, they're prepared to tackle that challenge if it comes.
"We'll continue to work with whatever comes our way. We would just hope that things that don't necessarily have to be there and don't achieve what we think they're trying to achieve, we hope we don't have to deal with those issues," Gronberg explained.
