NYC fires 40 sanitation workers over COVID-19 vaccine mandate

New York City has fired more than 1,400 government workers—including 40 sanitation employees—who failed to comply with the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, the office of Mayor Eric Adams revealed in a Feb. 14 notice.

The 1,430 workers who lost their jobs represent less than 1 percent of the 370,000-person city workforce and are far fewer terminations than expected before the Feb. 11 deadline to get the shots.

As reported by the Associated Press, the city sent notices in late January to up to 4,000 workers, saying they had to show proof they got at least two doses of the vaccine or else they’d lose their jobs. Three-quarters of those workers already had been on leave without pay for months, having missed an earlier Nov. 1, 2021, deadline for getting vaccinated in order to stay on the job.

The mandate, which was put in place by Mayor Adam’s predecessor Bill de Blasio, has proven so far to be effective in getting city employees vaccinated. According to the New York Times, about 95 percent of the city’s 370,000 workers have received at least one dose of the vaccine, an increase from 84 percent when the mandate was first announced in October 2021.

Mayor Adams’ office says hundreds of workers produced proof of their vaccines or got the shots after being notified they would be fired.

“City workers served on the front lines during the pandemic, and by getting vaccinated, they are, once again, showing how they are willing to do the right thing to protect themselves and all New Yorkers,” Adams says in a statement. “Our goal was always to vaccinate, not terminate, and city workers stepped up and met the goal placed before them.”

The firings have prompted backlash from some union leaders, however, who believe a single worker getting fired over a vaccine mandate is one too many.

“Workers should not get fired. There are a lot of people who don’t believe in putting this stuff in their bodies,” Harry Nespoli, president of the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association and head of the Municipal Labor Council, told the New York Post.