Mayor Adams Gives City Workers Who Refused the Vax a Chance to Return

On Wednesday, November 5, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced the city will offer employees terminated for failing to comply with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate — first issued in 2021 under the previous mayoral administration — an opportunity to return to city service in their former civil service titles and at their former salaries. This policy will apply to terminated employees in all mayoral agencies, at New York City Public Schools, and at the New York City Housing Authority.

Approximately 2,900 terminated employees will be offered the opportunity to return to their same title at the same rate of pay for which that title is currently paid, but without any credit for the time they did not serve the city, and with no right to backpay.

“The policies put in place before we came into office helped us weather additional waves of COVID, and once coupled with the policies our administration put in place over the first months of our term, we helped New York City rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic. But we recognize that we are in a different place today than we were nearly four years ago, and our policies should match the realities of the times,” Mayor Adams said.

In 2023, the Adams administration had previously offered former employees who were terminated for not taking the COVID-19 vaccine the opportunity to be reinstated, resulting in approximately 450 terminated former employees returning to work. This new policy will, once again, specifically allow eligible employees who were terminated for not being vaccinated the option to return to city service, pursuant to a proposed rule change by DCAS, subject to a public hearing and approval by the New York state Civil Service Commission. Non-competitive employees and DOE staff are eligible to return to city employment without any change to existing civil service rules.

Former employees who require a physical exam, fitness test, or other training or examination requirements, including certification, to return to their former position will still be subject to such requirements as a condition of reinstatement. In addition, there will be a limited background review of subsequent history. All former permanent competitive and labor class, non-competitive, or exempt employees who were terminated and are interested in returning to city service must contact the head of human resources at their former agency by December 5, 2025. Employees terminated from New York City Public Schools should contact NYCPSServicereturn2025@schools.nyc.gov, and employees terminated from NYCHA should contact HR.Laborel@nycha.nyc.gov.

In response to the announcement, Councilwoman Joann Ariola, a longtime advocate for reinstating city employees who refused the Covid vaccine, said, “The recent announcement by Mayor Adams regarding an opportunity for municipal workers terminated for COVID-19 vaccine noncompliance to return to work is a clear cut case of too little, too late. It is absolutely shameful that this mayor sought fit to spend taxpayer dollars to fight their return for his entire mayoralty, and only now on his way out does he see it fit to allow them to return to the jobs they never should have lost to begin with. As further insult to injury, this latest announcement still fails to properly compensate these workers with backpay and time for the period they were denied work – one last denial of justice for a group that has already had their rights and livelihoods unjustly stripped from them for far too long.

“We’ve seen individuals who dedicated their lives to this city forced to live in their cars or move into homeless shelters because Eric Adams and his cronies would not allow them back to their posts.

“This late-in-the-game decision does not give the administration penance for what they’ve done and for the harm they’ve inflicted. The blatant disrespect so many of our first responders, educators, and civil servants have had to endure since the bungled roll-out of New Yok City’s response to the pandemic will not be forgotten, and our heroes deserve a real apology. Not a thinly veiled attempt to save face as we prepare for a new administration that has been outspoken about putting our heroes last. This will not be a warm welcome back for any who do choose to return.”