NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio threatens to withhold the paychecks of NYPD officers and other city workers who refuse weekly COVID-19 testing
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
- Mayor de Blasio threatened to withhold the paychecks of unvaccinated NYPD officers who refuse weekly COVID-19 testing.
- The NYPD's largest police union is against the testing mandate because officers will not be compensated for the time spent getting them done.
- 53% of NYPD employees have received one dose of the vaccine, according to data from the Gothamist.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio threatened to withhold the paychecks of New York Police Department officers and other city workers who aren't vaccinated for COVID-19 and refuse weekly testing.
Under a mandate enacted by de Blasio, all city workers must be vaccinated against COVID-19 or be tested for the disease weekly. The mandate goes into full effect on Monday, impacting about 340,000 city workers across various sectors.
"If someone, again, does not follow that mandate, that's true, eventually, they're not going to be paid, obviously," de Blasio said in a press conference on Thursday.
As of this week, 53% of NYPD employees have received one dose of the vaccine, compared to about 79% of adults in New York City, according to data obtained by the Gothamist from the NYC department of health. Approximately 71% of adults in New York City are fully vaccinated. The NYPD has among the lowest vaccination rates of any city agency, the New York Times previously reported.
The Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York, the largest municipal police union in the world, has spoken out against the testing mandate because police officers will not be compensated for the time spent getting tested, something that was originally promised to them by the NYPD and City Hall, a spokesperson for the union told Insider.
"Contrary to our previous conversations with the Department, the order indicates that unvaccinated MOS must obtain a COVID-19 test on their own time," PBA president Patrick J. Lynch wrote in a memo that was shared with Insider. "In the PBA's view, any testing mandated by the Department must be conducted on job time and at the city's expense, and any test received outside of the MOS's regular working hours should be subject to overtime compensation."
In response to the mandate, the PBA is planning on filing a grievance with the city's office of collective bargaining, an organization within the city's government that regulates labor relations disputes and controversies with city employees, Lynch said.
However, de Blasio is confident the mandate will be successful, adding adjustments to the policy can be made if needed, he said during the press conference.
The mayor's office and NYPD did not respond to Insider's request to comment on whether or not adjustments will be made based on pushback from the PBA.
President Joe Biden's plan to require vaccinations or mandatory testing for businesses with more than 100 employees should not impact the PBA's stance on the mandate, the spokesperson said.
On Thursday, Biden announced an OSHA rule mandating large employers require vaccinations or weekly testing. The rule does not mention compensation or overtime pay for the time spent by employees to get tested.
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