City staff had been required to indicate proof of no less than one dose of a coronavirus vaccine earlier than November 2021, amid worries that winter would hasten the unfold of the virus. The sanitation workers had been terminated in February this yr. A mandate for public-facing staff of personal firms additionally went into impact in December 2021, however was amended to incorporate exemptions for performers and athletes after sharp criticism.
Porzio highlighted the exceptions, writing that if the mandates had been “about safety and public health, no one would be exempt.” He mentioned that whereas the well being commissioner had the authority to challenge public well being mandates, the commissioner “cannot create a new condition of employment for City employees,” nor can the general public well being authority “prohibit an employee from reporting to work” or terminate an worker.
Mayor Eric Adams (D) introduced final month that town was dropping the mandate for personal staff as of Nov. 1. He mentioned on the time that ending the mandate for presidency workers was “not on the radar for us.” (Porzio wrote in his ruling that the mayor “cannot exempt certain employees from these orders.”)
A spokesman for the New York City Law Department mentioned in an announcement that town “strongly disagrees with this ruling as the mandate is firmly grounded in law and is critical to New Yorkers’ public health.”
He added that the mandate, which was put in place by then-Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), would keep in place “as this ruling pertains solely to the individual petitioners in this case.” In announcing the mandate, de Blasio mentioned that the “privilege” of serving New Yorkers as a public worker “comes with a responsibility to keep yourself and your community safe.”
Adams’ workplace told the native news publication City & State New York final month that 1,761 metropolis staff had been fired attributable to noncompliance with the mandate. More than 1,400 of these had been terminated in February, when Adams said that the workers had been “quitting” and never being terminated, as a result of it was a “decision” to not get vaccinated.
Porzio mentioned his order was “not a commentary on the efficacy of vaccination, but about how we are treating our first responders.”
“Though vaccination should be encouraged, public employees should not have been terminated for their noncompliance,” Porzio wrote.
Lee Zeldin, the Republican nominee for governor of New York, said at a debate on Tuesday night that anybody terminated attributable to a state requirement for well being care workers to be vaccinated needs to be “offered their jobs back, with back pay.” He additionally criticized “special celebrity exemptions,” in a reference to the athlete exceptions, though these had been from town’s mandate.
