Unvaccinated city workers will be required to wear a mask indoors at their workplaces, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday, vowing to “remove” workers who don’t comply with the new rule and suspend them without pay.
“If you are unvaccinated and you are a city employee, beginning on Monday, you must either wear a mask indoors at your worksite at all times,” de Blasio said Monday at his daily remote press briefing, “or if you prefer not to, you must immediately go get vaccinated.”
The policy goes into effect next Monday, Aug. 2, and mandates that city workers that want to go mask-free provide “documented proof” of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, the mayor said.
“Only with documented proof of vaccination does one have the option to forgo a face covering,” de Blasio said.
“We will not tolerate any decision to do otherwise,” de Blasio declared. “If someone is not wearing their mask, they will be removed from the workplace.”
“It’s quite clear the Delta variant has changed the game,” he explained.
Employees who refuse to wear a mask or get inoculated will not receive their paychecks for days spent out of their office or other work setting, according to Renee Campion, the city’s labor relations commissioner.
“If employees refuse to comply, they just cannot be at work, and in fact, they will not be paid,” she said during the press briefing.
The city’s health commissioner said the new step is needed to curb COVID-19 as the delta variant spreads in the five boroughs.
“We need stronger medicine to deal with Delta, which is why we’re taking these steps today,” said Dr. Dave Chokshi.
“It’s our duty to be sure that we are not ourselves spreading the virus,” said Dr. Mitch Katz, head of NYC Health + Hospitals.
The announcement came after the mayor confirmed the health worker vaccination-or-test mandate will soon apply to the entire city workforce. The decision followed the mayor suggesting in recent weeks he would expand the vaccine-or-test mandate as the highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19 has increasingly become a cause for concern.
On Wednesday, de Blasio announced the city is mandating that public hospital and health clinic system workers either be vaccinated against COVID-19 or agree to be bested weekly for the bug.
While more than 70 percent of New Yorkers have received at least one dose of a vaccine — higher than the national average — the Big Apple has struggled to get the city’s workforce inoculated.
Just 43 percent of NYPD officers are vaccinated, The Post reported Wednesday — up just two percent since May. According to data compiled by non-profit news outlet The City, 42 percent of Department of Corrections workers, 51 percent of FDNY employees and 60 percent of people who work for the DOE have been vaccinated.