Home » News » Hundreds of New York City prison workers face suspension due to vaccination mandate – Telemundo New York (47)

Hundreds of New York City prison workers face suspension due to vaccination mandate – Telemundo New York (47)

New York City required nearly all of its municipal workforce, including teachers, police officers, firefighters, and garbage collectors, to receive at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by November, but gave them to jail workers. an additional month due to staffing concerns.

NEW YORKNew York City’s already troubled prison system faces a new challenge: the possible suspension of hundreds of prison officers for failing to meet Tuesday night’s deadline to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

The city’s Department of Corrections reported that 77% of its staff had received at least one dose of the vaccine by 5 p.m. Monday, the lowest of any city agency, meaning some 1,900 employees have yet to they have fulfilled the mandate. It was delayed a month for prison workers due to a shortage of existing staff.

Prison workers who have applied for religious or medical exemptions can continue to work while their cases are reviewed, authorities said. Jail officials said they would release data on Wednesday detailing how many workers requested exemptions.

Workers who have not applied for an exemption and who did not provide proof of vaccination before 5 p.m. Tuesday were required to be placed on leave without pay and surrender any firearms and protective equipment issued by the city, authorities said.

In anticipation of the impending mandate, Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday issued an emergency executive order designed to bolster jail staff by authorizing a change to 12-hour shifts from the normal 8-hour tours.

The president of the prison guards union opposed the move, saying it was “reckless and wrong.”

The union said it would sue to block the mandate, the same tactic a police union tried in late October as the vaccine requirement for officers approached. The police union lost and the mandate went into effect as planned.

Benny Boscio Jr., president of the Benevolent Association of Correctional Officers, said staffing in the city’s jails is as bad or worse than in October, when De Blasio announced that jail workers would have additional time to comply. with the vaccination mandate.

Fewer than 100 of the promised 600 guards have been hired, Boscio said, and none of them have started working in prisons. Resignations and retirements have piled up, and guards continue to work shifts 24 hours a day, with no time to eat or rest, Boscio said.

Suspending prison workers for the vaccine mandate could be deadly, the union chief warned.

“Going forward with the layoffs we have tomorrow would be like pouring gasoline on a fire, which will have a catastrophic impact on the safety of our officers and the thousands of prisoners in our custody,” Boscio said Tuesday.

The looming suspensions threaten to exacerbate problems in the city’s jails, which includes the notorious Rikers Island complex. Prisons, rotten by years of neglect, have spiraled out of control during the pandemic with staggering violence, self-harm and the deaths of at least 14 inmates this year, the most since 2013.

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