N.Y.C. fires 1,430 workers over municipal vaccine mandate deadline

New York City fired 1,430 city workers on Friday due to a vaccine mandate in one of the largest mass termination of municipal employees.

On Monday, Mayor Eric Adams announced that workers who had been on unpaid leave for months because they had failed to comply with the vaccine mandate were sent termination notices.

Around 900 of those fired worked for the Department of Education, 100 at the New York City Housing Authority, 36 from the police department, and 25 from the Fire Department, reported The New York Times.

“They have not been teaching in schools, patrolling our streets, or maintaining our parks — yet they have been taking salary lines away from agencies and stopping the city from hiring individuals who are willing to do the jobs New Yorkers need them to do,” said City Hall.

Around 4,000 city employees had to comply with the vaccine mandate by last Friday. The city’s vaccine mandate, announced last October, requires workers to receive at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. New hires must get two doses, if the vaccine requires it.

Adams said that most of the city’s 370,000 workers complied with the mandate. At least 95 percent have received one dose of the vaccine. The 1,430 employees fired this week represent less than one percent of the Big Apple’s work force.

“Our goal was always to vaccinate, not terminate, and city workers stepped up and met the goal placed before them,” Adams said.

Around 9,000 city employees are still unvaccinated. However, many are seeking medical or religious exceptions or making appeals to avoid termination.