NEW YORK – The New York state Supreme Court delivered a major blow to employers by reinstating all employees who were fired for not being vaccinated, ordering back pay and saying their rights had been violated. Many of the terminated personnel were police officers and firefighters, Fox News reported.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said earlier this year that he would not rehire employees who had been fired due to their vaccination status. However, in its Monday ruling, the court determined what is readily apparent to anyone paying attention, and that “being vaccinated does not prevent an individual from contracting or transmitting COVID-19.”
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NY State Supreme Court reinstates all fired unvaccinated employees, orders backpay, says the state violated rights, acted arbitrary & capricious, notes:“Being vaccinated does not prevent an individual from contracting or transmitting Covid-19.”https://t.co/nvOsWfa56S pic.twitter.com/WhH4wje2bQ— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) October 25, 2022
Adams’ vaccine mandate was a policy he embraced after inheriting it from his predecessor, former Mayor Bill de Blasio. NYC alone fired roughly 1,400 employees for being unvaccinated earlier this year, according to Fox.
Yet the hypocrisy became glaringly apparent when Adams made citywide exceptions for athletes and performers.
“We’re here to say that we support the revocation of the vaccine mandate that the mayor announced on Thursday,” Uniformed Fire Officers Association President Lt. James McCarthy said. “We think that it should be extended as well. We support the revocation of the mandate for the athletes and performers that work in New York City. We think that the people that work for New York City should also have the mandate revocated for them.”
“If you’re going to remove the vaccine mandate for certain people in the city, you need to remove it for everybody in the city,” Ansbro said. “If you’re going to follow the science, science is going to tell you there isn’t any danger right now, and putting hundreds of firefighters, police officers and other emergency workers out of work is not in the best interest of the city. It’s not safe.”
The ruling comes after a Manhattan supreme court judge ruled in September that police officers who were fired because of the city’s COVID vaccine mandate had to be reinstated.
