City workers get the ax for not meeting vaccination mandate deadline

A spokesperson for Mayor Adams has confirmed that 101 municipal workers in New York City were expelled for failing to get a second vaccination dose required under New York City’s COVID mandates.

The workers who lost their jobs on Friday were among 3,247 notified by the city that they needed to receive a second dose by a March 11 deadline.

Of those 3,247 city workers, 3,146 or 97% submitted proof of getting a second dose within the required timeframe.

The recent workforce culling comes a month after a much more substantial number of city employees were fired for not following vaccination mandates.

Almost 1,500 city workers lost their jobs during that round of worker terminations, which was also prompted by failing to follow city vaccine guidelines.

The group who faced termination on Friday comprised of city employees hired before Aug. 2, 2021 who had not submitted proof of a second vaccination and who had not applied for a reasonable accommodation exempting them from receiving the vaccine, a spokeswoman for the mayor’s office said Monday.

Adams praised vaccinated city workers on Monday in a written statement, but had little to say about those who lost their jobs as a result of failing to comply with the mandate.

“City workers have served New Yorkers tirelessly on the frontlines of the pandemic. They have stepped up once again to get vaccinated, protecting themselves and the New Yorkers they serve,” he said.

“Our goal was always to vaccinate, not terminate, and 97% of employees who were notified to submit proof of a second dose did so by the deadline.”

According to an Adams’ administration official, 95% of the city’s workforce is now fully vaccinated — meaning that they either have received both doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or the single dose Johnson & Johnson shot.

The mandate requiring city workers to be vaccinated was issued in October by Adams’ predecessor, former Mayor Bill de Blasio.