New York's vaccine mandate extends to private sector employees

On Monday, New York became the first city in the country to extend its vaccine mandate to private sector employees. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that all the employees of private companies in the city who will be working in person need to be vaccinated at least with the first shot. There is no option to undergo weekly testing instead. 

The federal vaccine mandate for private companies proposed by President Biden has been stalled by legal challenges. The New York mandate will affect around 184,000 businesses. One main question that has been going around is whether this is legal especially since the federal mandate itself is stalled. To answer that, the city's mandate is based on different legal considerations than the federal mandate. New York City has a home rule in this matter and a very broad set of health power. However, Mayor Blasio has not received confirmation to go ahead with the mandate from the City Council and this will result in a lot of other legal challenges going forward. Mayor Blasio's term is coming to an end and on January 1st his successor Eric Adams will take office. The new elect will evaluate the measure once he takes office. Business owners in the city are of the opinion that they were blindsided by the mandate. They have no information regarding its implementation, compliance procedure, record keeping, etc. 

Retailers who are against the mandate have stated labor shortage as a reason. They believe that such an inflexible policy will cost them employees who do not wish to comply. Some others are of the opinion that it will make retaining employees easier. 

Source: New York Times