LA City Workers May Get Two Extra Months To Comply With Vaccine Mandate
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) - Wednesday marks the deadline for all Los Angeles city employees to receive their COVID-19 vaccinations, based on a mandate from the city.
However, a new proposal submitted on Tuesday by the city administrative officer would give those employees an additional two months to comply with the mandate - with an end goal of December 18 in mind.
If the proposal is accepted, those unvaccinated workers would have to take two COVID-19 tests a week, at a rate of $65 per test taken from their paychecks. Those tests would have to be taken during the employee's free time and not during working hours. No third-party COVID-19 tests would be allowed, and would have to be administered by the city or a vendor of the city's choosing.
Employees would be allowed to apply for an exemption from this, but would still have to adhere to these guidelines until the city was able to review the request. If the exemption was accepted, that person would be refunded for all tests taken during that time, and would only have to submit to one COVID-19 test a week, at the city's expense.
Additionally, if the request for exemption was denied, that person would then have five days to file an appeal or provide proof of vaccination. Failure to do either of these would result in what the city called "corrective action," with little detail as to what that entails.
Some listed qualifications for potential exemption are listed as medical exemptions or sincere religious beliefs or practices that would prevent them from receiving the vaccine.
On top of all of this, employees would be allowed to either resign or retire in good standing with the company if they chose not to comply with the vaccination mandate.
(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)