It’s jabs for jobs: City to rehire 600 if they get vaxxed

Get a jab and get your job back. That’s the offer Mayor Adams’ administration is floating to hundreds of former city government workers who were fired earlier this year over their refusal to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Roughly 600 ex-municipal employees received letters from the city over the weekend informing them that they can be rehired if they get the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by June 30, a spokesman for Adams confirmed Monday.

“Our goal has always been vaccination, rather than termination,” said the spokesman, who characterized the rehiring drive as the administration’s “final effort” to convince the vaccine skeptics.

Canned workers will not automatically be rehired after their first shot, though. The spokesman said they will also need to make arrangements to get a second shot by Aug. 15, and won’t officially get their jobs back until the full vaccination sequence is complete.

“To be clear, no one will be able to resume work or return to payroll under this policy until they are fully vaccinated,” the spokesman said.

The last-ditch vaccination push comes after Adams’ administration fired 1,531 city workers in February and March who had refused to comply with the city’s municipal vaccine mandate. Of the axed workers, 956 were employed at the Department of Education.

The Adams rep said the offer letters that went out this weekend were not sent to DOE workers. Rather, DOE employees booted for refusing to get vaccinated will receive similar offers later this summer.