City workers told to vaccinate or be tested
Joining a growing movement among local governments across the country, San Jose announced Aug. 5 it will be requiring city employees to either get a COVID-19 vaccine or get tested weekly.
Those who fail to do so could be placed on unpaid leave.
The new mandate will go into effect Aug. 23 for thousands of city employees — from those who work in the libraries to those in City Hall to the city’s police and fire departments.
City officials say the edict is meant to protect the health and safety of employees, as well as community members, amid the alarming rise of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations caused by the highly contagious delta variant.
Santa Clara County is currently averaging 242 new COVID-19 cases per day — up from just 47 new daily cases a month ago, according to county data. As of Aug. 5, 78.5% of residents in the county have been fully vaccinated, county data indicates.
“The overwhelming message from our employee leaders is to require vaccination to protect the health of all of our city employees,” Mayor Sam Liccardo said. “And we also have an obligation to our larger community and as long as city employees will be acting with our community, we must ensure they can do so safely.”
Santa Clara County and San Francisco already have issued vaccination and testing mandates for their employees, and Los Angeles and San Diego are considering similar moves. San Jose Unified School District also announced last week that it would require teachers and staffers to either be vaccinated or tested twice a week for COVID-19, making the district of 30,000 students potentially the first in the Bay Area to enact such a policy.
Under San Jose’s new rule, all employees — including those still working from home — will be required to show proof of their vaccination by Aug. 23. Those who are not vaccinated or decline to provide proof will have to submit to weekly COVID-19 tests and communicate their results to their superiors.
The city will give employees who need to get a test up to one hour of paid time to do so, though testing should not result in overtime.
“Ensuring our workforce is protected against the worst impacts of COVID-19 means our essential staff will remain able to keep this city running,” Deputy City Manager Lee Wilcox said in a statement. “And by slowing the spread of the virus through vaccination, we do our part to keep our residents safe.”
San Jose officials also are considering a second step that would mandate vaccinations for all employees by the end of September without an option to submit to routine testing. They are currently discussing this plan with the unions and plan to reveal more information about it in the coming weeks.
Liccardo said this next move, which he supports, would take the city’s approach from more of a testing mandate to a “true vaccine requirement.”
“I empathize with those who feel confused by the winding route of this pandemic,” he said, “but to resolve the confusion, the only safe path forward is through vaccination.”