The number of employees with approved exemptions - or pending ones - is unclear. “Hundreds of guys are feeling flulike symptoms, because that’s what the shot does to people,” Mr. Ansbro said in a phone interview Sunday morning. But hundreds of firefighters were feeling the side effects of vaccine doses and were too unwell to work, Mr. The department said that all its firehouses remained open, but that maintaining coverage across the city had required shuffling personnel around to reconstitute fire companies.Īndrew Ansbro, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, the union that represents rank-and-file firefighters, said that there had been no organized sickout. The personnel shortage has put a strain on Fire Department operations. He attributed the uptick in sick leave to “anger at the vaccine mandate.” “Irresponsible bogus sick leave by some of our members is creating a danger for New Yorkers and their fellow firefighters,” the fire commissioner, Daniel A. More than 2,000 New York City firefighters - out of a total uniformed force of about 11,000 - have taken sick days over the past week in what city officials describe as a large-scale protest against the mandate. The vaccine mandate has been especially contentious within the tight-knit Fire Department. The Sanitation Department has put workers on 12-hour shifts and told many to plan to come in on Sundays. Mandates for health care workers in California and New York State compelled thousands of holdouts to receive the shots.
New York City has a mandate for teachers and staff in public schools.
The number of vaccinated workers at city agencies has surged in the last few days, including at the New York Police Department, where 85 percent of employees were vaccinated on Monday, up from 70 percent when the mandate was announced. Unvaccinated municipal employees without an approved medical or religious exemption - or a pending request for one - were placed on unpaid leave.