Courts to fire unvaxxed employees
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The Office of Court Administration warned over 150 court employees earlier this week that if they don’t come into compliance with the court’s vaccine mandate by April 5, they’ll be fired. AP file photo by Ted S. Warren
By Jacob Kaye
Around 150 court employees face the pink slip if they don’t get the jab in the next week and a half, the Office of Court Administration announced this week.
On Monday, court officials notified 156 court employees throughout New York that if they don’t submit proof of vaccination before the end of business on April 4, they’ll be fired.
In addition to the court employees, there are four judges throughout New York who have yet to get vaccinated. However, as judges, OCA is unable to fire them.
“These employees have been given adequate time to either comply or submit an accepted medical or religious exemption,” said Lucian Chalfen, the spokesperson for the OCA. “Should there be no change in their status of non-compliance with our vaccine mandate policy…by April 4th, they will be terminated.”
Currently, unvaccinated court employees are barred from entering any of the state’s court facilities. Their absences are being charged to any accruals they may have. The vaccine mandate began in September.
Chalfen said that while the unvaccinated judges can’t be fired, they “are being held to account.” The judges are prevented from entering a court building and working from home. Judges with criminal cases are not allowed to conduct arraignments.
Additionally, Chalfen said the judges are subjecting “themselves to a referral to the Commission on Judicial Conduct for their determination.”
While OCA could not confirm the number of court employees facing termination that work in Queens, about half of the court’s unvaccinated population works in New York City courts, according to Chalfen. None of the unvaccinated judges sit on the bench in Queens.
Dennis Quirk, the head of the New York Court Officers Association, who was suspended from his job as a court officer after he posted Chief Judge Janet DiFiore’s addresses on Facebook in an effort to get members to picket in front of her home in opposition to the vaccine mandate, told the Eagle around 28 court officers are unvaccinated and face termination. Around five of those 28 officers work in Queens, Quirk said.
The union leader accused DiFiore of being “unethical,” and, in addition to the mandate, took issue with the timing of the deadline.
The union has a Public Employment Relations Board hearing on the mandate on April 5, the day the firings kick in, he said.
Additionally, the courts sent out the notice 14 days before the April 4 deadline, which would prevent court employees from filing for retirement, which requires a 15-day notice.
“We bought a PERB case that the vaccine mandate is a change in condition of employment – that wasn't the condition when they got hired and the law requires them to negotiate any change in condition of employment with the unions,” Quirk said.
As was true of other vaccine mandates issued throughout the state, the court’s mandate was subject to legal challenge.
The New York State Supreme Court Officers Association brought a suit against the mandate shortly after it was first announced.
Though Supreme Court Justice Christina L. Ryba granted the union a temporary restraining order, pausing the implementation of the UCS’ mandatory vaccination program, in late September, Acting Rensselaer County Supreme Court Justice Adam W. Silverman ruled that the mandate could go forward in October.
The OCA wouldn’t be the first government body to fire unvaccinated employees. In February, Mayor Eric Adams fired over 1,400 municipal employees who hadn’t got the shot.
However, on Thursday, Adams lifted the vaccine mandate for private entertainment businesses, allowing a number of professional athletes to play on their home turf.
Adams also announced that he could, in the future, remove the mandate on municipal workers, adding that he would not consider hiring fired workers back.
“At this time, we are not reviewing if we want to bring back those [fired workers],” Adams said. “A large number were hired with the understanding that they had to be vaccinated. They understood that and they decided not to do so. So, at this time, we're not we're not entertaining it.”
The court’s mandate is not tied to the city or state mandate and should its mandate change, the courts likely won’t hire the court employees back.
“If someone steals something and then returns it, it doesn’t mean that they are absolved of the larceny,” Chalfen said.
