1 person in our work will not get vaccinated…

When you are fired is when you do qualify for unemployment. If she quits, she would not. It sounds like she isn't quitting. If the boss makes vaccinations a requirement to work there and she refuses, he will have grounds to fire her. Then she can collect unemployment as I understand the process.

Make sure it allows for medical/religious exemptions. Likely won’t apply to her but a CYA for the future.

Medical and religious exemptions are fine, but if it places an undue burden or creates direct threat on the employer to reasonably accommodate the employee, they may not have standing. 

I personally would not want to be in the same work area as this person.

I hope your employer lets her go and says right back to her "your choice." I have run out of sympathy for the ones who are keeping this virus going.....and killing people for "their choice."

Yes, I looked it up after I wrote it and if you are fired for cause, you don't qualify for benefits.

I expect though that firing people for not getting vaccinated is going to result in some lawsuits.  Whether they will have merit, I don't know.  Personally I hope all employers mandate this and we get people vaccinated and get over all this.  However, I can see people arguing that you are infringing on their rights and they are at least entitled to unemployment if they refuse and are fired, particularly since this was not a condition of employment when they took the job to begin with.

Yes, but with the delta variant, someone could be negative today and positive a few days later. Will she be tested daily? And won’t that be too late? Breakthroughs are becoming more common and some studies are showing vaccine effectiveness against the delta variant may be as low as 50 or 60 percent - though with few hospitalizations and fewer deaths. 

Masks are so often worn poorly, or are one layer of cloth and many are leaky since faces aren’t flat. She’ll need to remove it to eat.

It seems that so far courts are siding with employers about requiring vaccinations. Management should write a policy, ideally run it by an employment attorney or at least go on line to see examples, and if she refuses, say goodbye. 

One 20 year old shouldn’t have such power. Everyone is expendable. 

I also saw that many companies are looking at options with their insurance providers to charge a surcharge on health care premiums for those who refuse to get vaccinated (similar to what they do for smokers).

My thoughts are…she is right, it is her choice…if the entire rest of the office is vaccinated, why be concerned about working around one employee?  They can wear a mask if they are concerned.

The boss could require vaccinations to work there, but it may be difficult since when she was hired, it wasn’t a requirement.  The boss could also require non-vaccinated employees to wear a mask.

I believe everyone should get vaccinated and I wish everyone would but…it is their personal choice 

Hmmm, I read her statement as a notice of leaving. In other words, if she’s required to wear a mask, “I’m not coming to work.” Ask her, “Are you resigning as of the date of your email or giving us two weeks’ notice?” Puts the onus back on her.

Why be concerned?  Because of breakthrough infections, those vaccinated coworkers could infect their young children or compromised family members, not to mention customers, since it's a retail location.  Masks are helpful but not foolproof, and the offending employee would likely be removing her mask multiple times daily to eat and drink.

A vaccination requirement implemented post-hiring presents exactly no additional difficulty over a pre-hiring requirement, absent possibly some odd context (union contracts, ability of an employee to show that the vaccination requirement is a front for illegal discriminatory action, etc.).  The vast majority of people are probably still working at the same jobs they did pre-COVID, and many of those employers are requiring vaccinations with no difference between new and existing employees.  The boss can absolutely require non-vaccinated employees to wear a mask, but as we know, masking really isn't a substitute for vaccination - it's meant to be complimentary.

While vaccination is (at least in the US, for now) a matter of personal choice, all personal choices come with consequences.  Losing your job can absolutely be one of them.

The boss can always give her a choice of either getting vaccinated or getting a test every single day before she starts her shift, at her cost if there is one and she can wear a KN95 mask.

Companies are allowed to change policies as long as they’re uniformly applied and don’t discriminate against federally or locally protected classes like race, age, sex, etc. 

One concern is that breakthroughs are becoming much more common, and protection of fully vaccinated people from delta may be 50-60% now, rather than in the 90s (Pfizer, Moderna) it was for earlier variants, according to some studies, though with few hospitalizations or deaths. 

If I worked there I’d be very concerned working around her, since since even a cold can trigger cough variant asthma and other fun things, once putting me in the hospital and coughing for months afterwards.