A judge has ordered the New York City Mayor's Office to reinstate nearly 3,000 city employees who were fired for refusing to get the covid vaccine.
N.Y. Supreme Court Justice Ralph Porzio noted in his ruling on Monday - which was released Tuesday - that the New York City health commissioner overstepped his duties and violated workers' rights to due process and equal protection when it prohibited them from working.
The judge recalled Mayor Eric Adams' lifting of the vaccination mandate for some private employees earlier this year - notably athletes and entertainers - as evidence that the mandate for public workers was arbitrary and capricious.
There is nothing in the record to support the rationality of keeping a vaccination mandate for public employees while vacating the mandate for private sector employees or creating a carveout for certain professions, like artists, athletes or performers... This is clearly and arbitrary and capricious action because we are dealing with identical unvaccinated people being treated differently by the same administrative agency.
As a result, the dismissed employees must be reinstated immediately and must be paid all back wages since the time of dismissal, which became effective on February 13. Among those laid off are police officers, firefighters, teachers and health personnel.
It is not health, but compliance with the mandate of the Mayor's Office
Judge Ralph J. Porzio wrote in his ruling that if the vaccination mandate was about “safety and public health, unvaccinated workers would have been placed on leave the moment the order was issued.” However, he recalls that the layoffs occurred much later.
The Mayor's Office of Eric Adams decreed that vaccinations would be mandatory as of November 1, 2021 and extended the deadlines for those who did not want to be vaccinated until February 13, when he decreed the layoffs.
Nevertheless, the New York Administration insists on pursuing its unvaccinated employees and the city's Board of Health announced that it plans to appeal the judge' s order. In a statement, the City Council's legal department noted that it "strongly disagrees with this ruling as the mandate is firmly grounded in law and is critical to New Yorkers’ public health.”
Here you can read the full judgment that forces the city of New York to reinstate its employees fired for not being vaccinated against covid:
85163 2022 George Garvey Et Al v City of New York Et Al DECISION ORDER on 37 by VozMedia on Scribd
