Los Angeles could soon end the requirement that city employees get vaccinated against COVID-19.
City officials recommend that the Los Angeles City Council stop the requirement in early June, according to a newly released report. The COVID vaccination rule was first approved by city leaders nearly three years ago, when public health officials urged vaccination to protect people from the coronavirus.
In a report, city administrative officer Matt Szabo noted that other local government agencies, including the cities of Long Beach, San Diego and Los Angeles County, had stopped requiring COVID vaccination as a condition of employment . Szabo said Los Angeles employee groups had not opposed ending the requirement.
The Los Angeles ordinance defined “fully vaccinated” as workers who had received one dose of a one-shot vaccine, such as Johnson & Johnson, or both doses of a vaccine that required two shots, such as the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines. but the definition said “may be expanded” if health officials required reinforcements. According to the city ordinance, workers could request an exemption if they had “a medical condition or restriction or a sincerely held religious belief.”
If city leaders approve ending the requirements, employees who resigned or were laid off due to the vaccination rule may be eligible to be rehired in the same positions as before.
Eighty-six city workers were laid off under the rule, Szabo said; It is unclear how many employees resigned due to the COVID vaccine requirement because they do not have to disclose their reasons.
Los Angeles has faced numerous lawsuits over its COVID vaccination policy. In one of the latest lawsuits, filed last week in federal court, a woman who previously worked as a city accountant said she was denied a religious exemption from the vaccination requirement and was ultimately fired from her position. She accused the city of discrimination, saying it had ignored its policy of “accommodating sincerely held religious beliefs.”
The move to pause vaccination requirements comes as the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has seen a slight increase in COVID cases, although they cautioned that it was too early to say whether it would become a sustained increase.
