Boston suspends 812 workers over coronavirus vaccine mandate

The city of Boston has suspended 812 employees who didn’t come into compliance with its coronavirus vaccine mandates, leaving the city “implementing contingency plans” as it finds itself short more than 4% of its workforce.

The city announced the move at the end of the day on Tuesday, the day the city last week had warned that the crackdown would begin.

As the Herald reported over the weekend, Acting Mayor Kim Janey’s office said it sent out notices to about 1,400 out-of-compliance employees last Wednesday, Oct. 6, announcing that the suspensions loomed this week. By Friday, 200 of those people got into compliance, according to the city.

The additional 400 or so did so by Tuesday, the first day City Hall was back open after the long weekend.

“We are now implementing contingency plans for bus transportation and other school operations impacted by employee leaves of absence, due to unverified vaccination or testing,” Janey’s office said in a statement Tuesday night. “We continue to work closely with our diverse workforce, and our union partners, to ensure employees have access to vaccination, testing and verification systems to comply with the mandate.”

Janey in August announced a vaccine mandate for all of the city’s employees and contractors. It’s not an absolute mandate, as people who don’t wish to get a vaccine can instead opt to submit weekly evidence of a negative coronavirus test, and medical and religious exemptions were possible.

There are about 18,000 city of Boston employees, meaning about 4.5% are suspended — and on the flip side, it means that more than 95% are in compliance with Janey’s mandate either through vaccination, testing or exemption. Information wasn’t immediately available about the department-by-department numbers.

Janey announced that this would begin to be phased in, with the first cohort of requirements starting Sept. 20, and applying to employees of Boston Public Schools, the Boston Centers for Youth & Families, Boston Public Libraries and some other higher-risk workers. Then others, including cops, firefighters, inspectional services and more, would face mandates starting Oct. 4. The mandate expands to all remaining workers and contractors on Oct. 18, so these numbers come as some employees haven’t hit the wall yet.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3oYEjn8