Philly’s vaccine mandate for city employees delayed 10 days

Philadelphia’s vaccine mandate for city employees, which was supposed to take effect Friday, has been delayed to Jan. 24 due to a new agreement between Mayor Jim Kenney and the union for white-collar city workers.

The mandate, announced in November, will require all 22,000 unionized city employees to show proof of vaccination or obtain an exemption for religious or medical reasons. If they fail to do so, workers will be placed on unpaid leave for two weeks, and, if they have not begun getting vaccinated by the end of that period, they will be fired.

But no municipal employees represented by unions are getting fired for failing to comply with the mandate anytime soon. Thirteen nonunion employees, however, have already been fired for not complying with Kenney’s separate vaccine mandate for unrepresented workers, which took effect Dec. 1, the mayor’s office said Friday.

After the policy was announced, the city’s four major unions sought negotiated agreements or labor arbitration rulings, largely over details of the mandate’s implementation, such as how the city would evaluate exemption applications and how sick days would be counted for people who take time off while dealing with a reaction to the vaccine.

The city on Friday announced that it had reached an agreement with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 47, which represents 3,700 white-collar workers including administrative assistants and health-care professionals, that resets the deadline for their members to become vaccinated to Jan. 24.

The city’s largest union, AFSCME District Council 33, which represents 9,500 blue-collar workers such as trash collectors, had already agreed to comply with the mandate by Friday. But the labor arbitration award that set that deadline also included a provision in which DC33 members are entitled to a later deadline if any other union negotiates a different date.

The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, which has 6,500 members, and the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 22, representing about 2,600 firefighters and paramedics, are still in arbitration proceedings. It’s possible that the deadline for the mandate could be pushed back even further if their arbitration awards set a date past Jan. 24.

Among the city’s almost 3,300 nonunion employees, already subject to the vaccine mandate that took effect Dec. 1, 99% are in compliance, the mayor’s office said. Nonunion workers, called “exempt” employees, are primarily top-level managers or political appointees of the administration.

More than 3,100 of the nonunion employees have been vaccinated, and another 140 received exemptions, the mayor’s office said Friday. Ten nonunion workers applied for exemptions but were not approved.

Among workers represented by unions, so far 1,746 have applied for exemptions, and more than 1,300 have been approved.

To obtain a medical exemption, workers must submit forms signed by health-care professionals stating that they are “medically contraindicated,” meaning the vaccine could cause them harm, according to the DC47 agreement.

For religious exemptions, workers must sign a form stating that they have a “sincerely held religious belief” against the vaccine and “must include a certification as to why the worker’s religious belief prevents them from receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.” The agreement says that moral or philosophical objections to the vaccine are not sufficient to obtain an exemption.

Employees who are exempted from the mandate will be required to double-mask or wear an N95, and they will be tested regularly, according to the agreement.

All city workers who are vaccinated by Feb. 22 will receive a $300 bonus paid on April 1.

“As vaccines continue to be the best way to protect Philadelphians and save lives, we’re proud that nearly 22,000 City employees have gotten vaccinated and at least another 1,300 have an approved exemption to the vaccination mandate for City employees — representing nearly 81 percent of all City employees,” Kenney said in a statement.

Firefighters, police officers, and Streets Department workers are the least vaccinated groups of city employees, with 61% to 70% of workers in those departments inoculated as of Tuesday, according to mayor’s office estimates.

The highest rates of vaccination, between 91% and 100%, were in the Office of Innovation & Technology, the Managing Director’s Office, the Law Department, and the Department of Public Health.