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New York Court Reinstates City Workers Who Refused COVID Shots

gloves of sanitation worker

Judge Ralph Porzio, a Superior Court judge in Staten Island ordered that 16 city sanitation workers who lost their jobs for rejecting the COVID-19 shot mandate be reinstated for work and receive back pay. The ruling does not affect the city’s mandate or the other approximate 1,700 workers who were fired for failing to follow the mandate, as it only applies to the plaintiffs in this case.1 2

The judge found that the city’s health commissioner did not have the authority to change the terms of employment for city workers; the vaccine mandate was arbitrary and capricious; the mandate violated the New York Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine, and it was a violation of the city workers equal protection and due process rights. Judge Porzio also cited the fact that Mayor Eric Adams plans to end the vaccine mandate for private workers effective Nov. 1, 2022, and cited the inequity of the mayor’s decision to exempt athletes and performers from the mandate.3 4 5
Judge Porzio wrote:

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 athletes, artists and performers. This is clearly an arbitrary and capricious action because we are dealing with identical unvaccinated people being treated differently by the same administrative agency.6

He continued:

We have learned through the course of the pandemic that the vaccine against Covid-19 is not absolute. Breakthrough cases occur, even for those who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 is not absolute. President Joseph Biden has said that the pandemic is over. The State of New York ended the Covid-19 state of emergency over a month ago.7

FDNY-Uniformed Fire Officers Association President Lt. James McCarthy and FDNY-Uniformed Firefighters Association President Andrew Ansbro voiced support for the decision, calling on Mayor Adams to revoke the mandate for all city workers. McCarty said:

We’re here to say that we support the revocation of the vaccine mandate that the mayor announced on Thursday. We think that it should be extended as well. We support the revocation of the mandate for the athletes and performers that work in New York City. We think that the people that work for New York City should also have the mandate relocated for them.8

Ansbro followed:

If you’re going to remove the vaccine mandate for certain people in the city, you need to remove it for everybody in the city,” Ansbro said. “If you’re going to follow the science, science is going to tell you there isn’t any danger right now, and putting hundreds of firefighters, police officers and other emergency workers out of work is not in the best interest of the city. It’s not safe.9

New York City Continues the Fight

New York City has already filed an appeal and the Appellate Court will review Judge Porzio’s decision.10 Meanwhile, the city has no plans to revoke the vaccine mandate for city employees.11

A spokesman for the city said:

The city strongly disagrees with this ruling as the mandate is firmly grounded in law and is critical to New Yorkers’ public health.12

Chad LaVeglia, attorney for the fired sanitation workers suggested that all fired city workers could bring their own lawsuit against the city. “Once the court declared it unconstitutional, the City should’ve ended it without further court intervention,” he explained, adding that “[t]he City is breaking the law by continued enforcement. And it does so at its own peril.”13


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4 Responses

  1. Can someone explain the difference between unvaxed from other countries travelling on a plane or bus or working in a factory with unvaxed yet folk cannot travel from a country with much lower cases at present than the USA. Yet they still cannot enter to visit loved ones because they haven’t the death jab?

  2. I agree with you that this does not make any sense whatsoever. It is frustrating not to be able to have my loved ones come to visit bc tourist visa foreigners cannot enter the USA without vaccination yet all the illegals crossing the border who have not been vaccinated are free to come and stay inside of this country. Outrageous!!!

  3. So of course a NY politician stands on the grounds of “law” (which is unconstitutional in the US), but there is no true science, as we’re gradually being told, behind these vaccines. There was not enough research pre-market, there were not enough safety studies. I pray for these brave workers to finally be reinstated and repayed for their losses.

  4. Sanitation workers?
    Is that the people that remove rubbish ?️ and drive a trash truck?
    They don’t come in contact with the resident.
    Even if ☣️? would stop COVID, : a ?️ collector ? would not effect public health.

    Also new York has no right to mandate ☣️?!

    New York City is putting public health at risk by not remove ?️.
    Rats will eat and spread desize.

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