COVID Vaccine Required for Baltimore Employees

BALTIMORE – Baltimore employees will be required to get the coronavirus vaccine or face weekly testing for COVID-19, city officials announced Tuesday.

The new rules, which will become effective Oct. 18, require the city’s 14,000-strong workforce to report their vaccination status to city human resources officials. Employees must be fully vaccinated — meaning they have received both doses of a two dose variety of the vaccine or a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Also two weeks must have elapsed since those shots.

Those who do not get vaccinated will need to get tested for the coronavirus weekly at one of 21 sites the city is setting up for employee testing, according to City Administrator Chris Shorter. Failure to submit a vaccination status to the city will result in discipline and possible termination, according to a note circulated to city staff early Tuesday.

With city leaders encouraging residents to get the vaccine, Shorter said they thought they should require employees to do so as well.

City officials signaled two weeks ago during a Baltimore City Council hearing they were considering a vaccination policy. Since then, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted full approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Shorter credited the FDA approval with making the new requirement possible.

“A vaccination that is on emergency approval is very different,” he said. “We are happy to have an approved vaccine we’re mandating for our workforce.”

When the requirement becomes effective, Baltimore will join neighboring Anne Arundel County in requiring the vaccinations of employees. Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman announced earlier this month that vaccinations will be required as of Sept. 13 for county employees. Otherwise they are subject to weekly coronavirus testing.

School systems in Howard and Baltimore counties and the city of Annapolis have adopted similar requirements. Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, has required some state and private health care workers to prove they’re vaccinated or submit to testing.

The new requirement in Baltimore comes as a first wave of employees who have been working from home during much of the pandemic begin to return to work. Staff who have returned so far provide “priority” services such as operating the city’s bill-paying windows at the Abel Wolman Municipal Building.

Another wave of employees who provide additional “resident-facing” services are due to return Oct. 24.

Baltimore officials are likely to face pushback to the mandate from city labor leaders, however. Some have already indicated that they believe mandatory vaccination must be bargained for based upon existing union contracts with employees.

Mayor Brandon Scott said previously that he did not believe such a requirement needed to be bargained.

“To be clear, consistent with the International Association of Firefighters, Local 734 opposes mandatory vaccinations,” Rich Langford, the group’s president, wrote in a letter to Scott last week. “We do, however, encourage our members to get vaccinations, and our general opposition is not reason to avoid bargaining or efforts toward a cooperative relationship.”

The unit stands read to bargain with city leaders, added Langford who represents rank and file firefighters.

In a letter sent to Scott earlier in the month, the local representing fire officers said a poll of members showed “an overwhelming margin” oppose mandatory vaccinations.

“Any policy that would mandate vaccinations among our membership would be a substantial material change in working conditions. As such, it would be subject to collective bargaining between the City and our local,” wrote Joshua Fannon, the group’s president.

Shorter said this week that the effective date was set for mid-October in part to accommodate effects bargaining. Effects bargaining is conducted when a business has the ability to take an action but the impact will be significant.

The delay will also allow city officials to get testing sites up and running, he said.

Until now, it has been unclear exactly where the vaccination rate stands among city employees. Existing counts come from employees who have self-reported. Health Commissioner Letitia Dzirasa said earlier this month about 60% of employees are believed to be vaccinated.

Exceptions may be made for city employees who have medical conditions preventing them from receiving the vaccine and people with a “sincerely held religious belief that prohibits them from receiving a vaccine,” according to the city’s memo to employees.

____

©2021 The Baltimore Sun. Visit at baltimoresun.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.