City of Toronto reports increase in compliance with vaccine mandate as it suspends nearly 250 employees

TORONTO -

Nearly 250 city workers have been suspended for failing to comply with a mandatory vaccination policy and more could soon face the same consequence.

The City of Toronto said earlier this week that 1,297 of its employees were either unvaccinated or had refused to disclose their status.

In a news release issued on Friday the city said that managers and supervisors began meeting with non-compliant employees this week and will continue with the meetings next week.

The city says that at this time 248 staff members have been suspended without pay for non-compliance with the policy while another 51 have been placed on leaves of absence pending a review of their requests for accommodation.

The city says that it does not anticipate impacts to critical and priority services” as a result of the suspensions, however it remains unclear whether other services could be impacted.

“More than 30,000 City of Toronto employees are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The vast majority of employees have done the right thing to protect themselves and the health and safety of their colleagues. I continue to urge all city employees and all Toronto residents to get vaccinated – it is safe and it is the best way to protect the progress we have made fighting this pandemic,” Mayor John Tory said in the release.

“As we continue to deal with this pandemic, the City’s COVID-19 vaccination policy is one important step that we took to help protect the health and safety of all city employees, their families, and our residents.”

According to the latest data released by the city, there has been an increase in compliance with the policy in the wake of some employees being formally suspended this week.

The city says that an additional 168 employees have submitted their vaccination status since the last update.

It also says that another 38 employees who had previously indicated that they were unvaccinated have since gotten a first dose.

The number of employees who had previously said that they were partially vaccinated also declined by 48 over the course of the week as some of them went out and got second doses.

The city says that there are still 1,016 employees who are only partially vaccinated but those

Individuals are being given until the week of Nov. 15 to get a second dose.

Any employee who remains non-compliant with the vaccine mandate after Dec. 13 will be terminated with cause, according to the city.