Hub suspends 812 over vax violations
The city of Boston has suspended 812 employees without pay 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, announcing that the suspensions loomed this week.
By Friday, 200 of those people got into compliance, according to the city. An additional 400 or so did so by Tuesday, the first day City Hall was back open after the long weekend — but that left the 812 not in compliance, and therefore suspended without pay.
“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. The city created an online portal at the end of August for employees to submit proof of vaccination or tests.
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 — a week and a half ago. The mandate expands to all remaining workers and contractors on Monday, so these numbers come as some employees haven’t hit the wall yet.
There are about 18,000 city of Boston employees, meaning about 4.5% are suspended. Information wasn’t immediately available about the department-by-department numbers.
Janey’s office said that these employees can get back to work by providing proof of a negative test.
The city noted its employee testing and vaccination efforts last week, saying that, in particular, schools employees who showed up on Tuesday and tested negative could do a day’s work for a day’s pay as normal. The city also touted outreach efforts in advance of the suspensions, saying the school district had called, texted and emailed reminders to staff.