My employer, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, FINALLY came out with two exemption possibilities- Medical or Religious. I emailed my supervisor and told him I'm refusing the vax, he replied ok, fill out the form of your choice, email it to the link provided and make sure to get tested before Oct 1st. Because I work graveyard and have a posted position (cannot leave my worksite unless relieved by a licensed steam engineer) he said if I need to get tested outside of my scheduled hours they will pay OT.
I filled out the form, emailed it and went to test this morning after my shift. We have several locations set up but none very close to the power plant so a colleague and I went together. The original email said to download an app and register for the test to cut down on wait time, but neither of us did that. I'm on OT, eff them. We also needed our ID badge and our personal insurance card. The email says testing for employees is free, but they will charge our insurance. Strange but whatever.
We show up at 6am after our shift right as this testing site is opening. They asked for my ID number, gave it to them, they looked it up in the computer, and verified who I was by just asking me my name (never looked at my badge). The chick grabbed a test kit (PCR) and wrote my name and ID number on the outside and asked if I had done a PCR test before, which I had not. She told me to step over to one of the open kiosks and tear open the cotton swab, place it in each nostril and swish it around 10 times, open the vial with liquid, place the cotton swab inside, place it in the zip lock bag and drop it in the box. So all this crap about mandatory testing and they're letting me do the test without anyone actually watching me. Ok. They also never asked to see my insurance card or ask if I downloaded the app. Call me a conspiracy theorist but I'd bet the app is actually going to be used for contact tracing via our phones location settings.
I stepped to the kiosk, swabbed my nostrils (correctly!) sealed it up, dropped it in the box and that was it. The chick said I could log on in 24 hours to see my results. I was in/out in 5 minutes. I went back to the power plant and called my supervisor to tell him I had just tested and he said cool, hang out for another 15 minutes and get make my OT an even 1/2 hour.
What we aren't sure of is weather we need to test once or twice per week for the exemption. They emailed us a list of work areas who must test twice a week but they are in the hospital. I work in the power plant and have no direct contact with patients, doctors or nurses. Regardless, now that I know how simple the process is I don't care if I need to go once or twice as long as I'm getting paid to do it.
To be honest I hope I test positive and have to 'quarantine' for a couple weeks again, just like I did last January. I'm way behind on prep jobs and could use two weeks of 'me' time in my shop.