T-Mobile to fire unvaccinated corporate staff on April 2nd

An internal T-Mobile memo obtained by Bloomberg reveals that corporate employees who have not received the COVID vaccination by April 2nd will be fired by the nation's second-largest wireless carrier. The memo, emailed to U.S. employees, also noted that "office employees" need to have received the first dose of a vaccine by February 21st or be placed on unpaid leave.

The policy laid out in the email will apply to all T-Mobile employees who need "regular or occasional" access to the carrier's offices which T-Mobile says includes nearly all members of its staff. Deeanne King, T-Mobile's chief human resources officer, wrote in the email that "Affected employees who do not become fully vaccinated and obtain a Magenta Pass (an internal digital pass that requires proof of vaccination) by April 2nd will be separated from T-Mobile."

King added, "While we hope every affected employee will be vaccinated and return to their workplace, we understand that for some, this means you must make a deeply personal decision. Uniting around this plan helps us all move forward with greater clarity and safety for our community."

T-Mobile is one of the bigger companies in the country to threaten that workers who do not get vaccinated will lose their jobs. American Express, for example, has told its staff that those who fail to get vaccinated will be forced to work remotely.

Those who fail to have the vaccination due to medical or religious reasons will be allowed to continue working without getting jabbed. T-Mobile confirmed the deadline as laid out in the memo by issuing a statement that reads, "T-Mobile's badge-controlled offices continue to be accessible only to those who are vaccinated against COVID-19 and we have shared with employees that we are requiring office workers to be fully vaccinated by April 2nd."

T-Mobile employees working inside call centers (Customer Experience Centers), will not be put on unpaid leave so as to "avoid impact to customer experience" in customer support and tech support. One difference is that support employees, while also requested to show proof that they had at least the first dose of a vaccine by February 21st, will not be put on unpaid leave if they fail to have this proof. They still will have to be fully vaccinated by April 2nd.

By April 2nd, when the company plans on bringing all representatives back to work on-site or through a hybrid experience, T-Mobile's staff must show proof that they have had a full vaccination. The memo does not apply to most in-store retail personnel and technicians in the field. While the latter employees are not forced to get the vaccinations and tested, T-Mobile is encouraging that they get jabbed and tested regularly.

The employees that you'll meet inside a T-Mobile store may not be vaccinated, but they are required to wear a mask. In the email, T-Mobile said, "We have weighed this issue carefully with the benefit of input from our medical advisers and insights from many other large companies with similar policies and its clear that this is the right thing to do help save lives and prevent serious illness."

The missive continued, "As we move into this next phase, all our badge-controlled offices remain open and our vaccinated-only policy still applies to these locations. While we encourage you to come in when you can, we will continue to be flexible on returning to the office while case counts remain high."

The important thing to know here for most of our readers is that if you are planning to visit a T-Mobile location, be assured that the reps you will be speaking to will be wearing a mask. This rule has been in place for in-store T-Mobile employees since last month.