In a pair of related rulings in Hayes v. University Health Shreveport, LLC, and Nelson v. Ochsner Lafayette General, the Supreme Court of Louisiana held on January 7, 2022, that private Louisiana employers may mandate COVID-19 vaccines for their employees.
On August 12, 2021, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell and the City of New Orleans Health Department announced updated Guidelines for COVID-19 Reopening, which require individuals to provide proof of “having received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine” or “evidence of a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken no more than 72 hours before entry” in order to access certain indoor establishments.
The Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal recently held in Derbonne v. State Police Commission, No. 2019 CA 1455 (October 14, 2020), that an employee whose duties require that he or she report violations of state law is not precluded from pursuing a claim for unlawful reprisal under Louisiana’s anti-reprisal or whistleblower statute, La. R.S. 23:967.
