States offer jobless aid to workers fired over employer vaccine requirement

Some states want to ensure that Americans who quit their jobs or who are fired over COVID-19 vaccine requirements in the workplace can collect unemployment.

Thousands of workers across the U.S. have declined to comply with vaccine mandates, now the norm among many employers. According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 5% of unvaccinated workers say they have chosen to leave their jobs rather than accede to an employer's directive that they get inoculated. 

In general, workers who quit their job or who are dismissed after defying a company's vaccine rule, willfully flouting its terms and conditions of employment, are ineligible for unemployment benefits.