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LA Working To Finalize Testing Program For Unvaccinated Workers
Los Angeles City Hall.
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Chava Sanchez
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LAist
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L.A. employees are under a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, but about a fifth of them have yet to get it done.
Meanwhile, they're not getting testing from the city and they're not being forced to pay for their own testing. The latest figures indicate more than 11,000 municipal workers have yet to show proof of full vaccination.
Last month, the L.A. City Council approved a vaccination plan for all city employees that included unvaccinated city workers having to pay $65 twice a week to cover the cost of testing for the coronavirus on their own time.
A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Garcetti's office says that "this is about giving departments a little bit of time to work through some final details of a complex interim testing program that will launch very soon."
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Garcetti and Council President Nury Martinez are members of the Executive Employee Relations Committee, which negotiates with the city workers' unions. The EERC is set to meet tomorrow and the vaccine mandate is on the agenda.
City employees have to get jabbed by Dec. 18, unless they receive a religious or medical exemption. Garcetti's spokesperson says "anyone who refuses should be prepared to lose their job."
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