NEW YORK CITY (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd November, 2021) About 9,000 New York City municipal workers have been put on unpaid leave for refusing to comply with a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Monday, adding that the city's services were not disrupted.
"Less than 6% of our workforce is on leave without pay today," de Blasio said via Twitter after ordering the vaccine mandate on October 20 for the city's approximately 160,500 public servants.�"We're hopeful that they'll do the right thing for themselves, their families and their city and get vaccinated."
About nine in ten city workers have gotten vaccinated, ensuring no disruptions to the city's services, de Blasio said. "We take our obligation to protect every single City worker from #COVID19 seriously," he added in the tweet.
Resistance to COVID-19 vaccines in New York City due to political and religious beliefs has held up the fight against the pandemic, officials say.
Since de Blasio announced the vaccine mandate, municipal workers against the plan had protested outside city hall, holding placards and shouting slogans. The mayor initially offered a bonus of $500 for every employee getting their first shot of a COVID-19 dose at a city-run vaccination site.
The head of the union that represents the city firefighters told reporters on Monday that the fire department was prepared to take up to 20% of its fire companies out of service and have 20% fewer ambulances on the road to protect the rights of its members who refused to be vaccinated.
"We're here today because of a mandate that was put not only on our members, but also all New York City employees, given nine days to make a life-changing decision on their career or whether or not they're going to take a vaccine," NBC news quoted the Uniformed Firefighters Association President Andrew Ansbro as saying.
About 12,000 city workers have applied for religious or medical exemptions to the vaccine mandate. They remain on the job while city officials review their applications.�
