The office of New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced on July 23 that more than 200 city workers were fired for failing to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
The latest addition brings the total number of terminations in the city to 1,752 as of July 13, a spokesman for Adams’s office told The New York Post. He declined to provide a list of departments where the jobs were cut.
Earlier this year, Adams fired 1,430 public-sector workers over their COVID-19 vaccination status, totaling less than 1 percent of the 370,000-person city workforce.
Some 64 percent of the employees who were fired in February worked for the Department of Education, while 101 workers were fired from the New York City Housing Authority, 75 from the Department of Correction, 40 from the Department of Sanitation, and 36 from the New York Police Department.
About a month later, the city fired another 101 workers for not complying with the mayor’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, including 42 in the Education Department.
In March, Adams became the subject of criticism for exempting athletes and performers not based in New York City from the mandate, while keeping the rule in place for private and public workers.
“This exemption sends the wrong message that higher-paid workers and celebrities are being valued as more important than our devoted civil servants, which I reject,” said New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, questioning the Democratic mayor’s decision.
New York City had some of the most restrictive mandates in the country, requiring almost all employees in various government agencies to be jabbed and requiring private employers to ensure their workers get vaccinated as well.
In June, Adams offered some workers who were fired in February and March the opportunity to get their old jobs back, but only on the condition they get fully vaccinated. They were given until June 30 to get the first dose and then make arrangements for a second dose by Aug. 15. The Post first reported the development.
The mayor’s office declined to reveal how many of the former public-sector employees agreed to the offer and planned to return to work. Ex-employees in the education department are expected to receive a letter later in the summer, a city spokesperson said.
Other than the 1,752 employees in various government agencies who were recently terminated, more than 6,000 city workers have applied for medical or religious exemptions from the mandate, but have yet to get an answer.
Isabel van Brugen contributed to this report.
