September 15 (Reuters) – With little fuss, all of the Federal Reserve’s regional banks followed the Minneapolis Fed’s decision in July to vaccinate employees against COVID-19, with the Philadelphia Fed announcing the new mandate to its employees on Wednesday.
The regional Fed banks of New York, Boston, St. Louis, San Francisco, Chicago, Richmond, Cleveland, Dallas, Atlanta, and Kansas City separately notified their employees last month that they would be subject to a vaccine mandate, with compliance deadlines set were already on October 1st and only on November 15th.
Philadelphia Fed employees have until November 30th. In total, the 12 banks employ almost 20,000 people.
The requirement is necessary to protect the health of the workforce and “to ensure that we are able to meet the needs of our constituents and do our part in combating the spread of COVID-19 and the formation of new variants within us serviced communities, ”said one Fed. from Dallas, a spokesman told Reuters.
U.S. President Joe Biden announced last week that he would require all U.S. companies with 100 or more employees to ensure that their employees are vaccinated or have a negative COVID-19 test every week. Goldman Sachs economists estimate the new rule is expected to affect around 25 million unvaccinated workers and would modestly boost economic growth. The Philadelphia Fed said Biden’s mandate was a factor in its decision.
Biden will meet executives from Walt Disney Co., Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday. and others to protect Americans from the spread of the virus that has filled hospital beds in some parts of the country and is slowing job growth nationally.
Most federal employees will also be subject to a new vaccine mandate by November 22, the Biden government said this week. The Fed’s 2,900 employees in Washington are employees of the federal government.
Some Republican governors, including those in the Atlanta, Kansas City and Dallas Fed districts, are against vaccine requirements and have vowed to fight them, citing freedom of choice and other concerns. Polls show that the majority of Americans support some form of mandate. According to a Reuters poll, as of September 1, around one in five US companies had a vaccine mandate.
Feds argue that vaccinations are key to economic recovery, particularly linking the labor market recovery to the uptake of COVID-19 vaccines. Approximately 63% of the eligible US population are fully vaccinated. Even so, the decision was tense for some.
“This has not been an easy decision for us, but vaccines offer strong protection against serious illness, hospitalization and death and we see them as the best way for us to address the safety and wellbeing challenges of the pandemic. “Said André Anderson, first vice president of the Atlanta Fed, who told staff on August 26th that they had until November 15th to get their syringes.
A New York Fed spokesman pointed to the bank’s efforts to overcome vaccine reluctance, including on-site vaccination. “Requiring a vaccine for all current and future New York Fed employees is imperative as we consider returning to the office,” the spokesman said.
Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Andrea Ricci
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
source https://www.bisayanews.com/2021/09/15/fed-regional-banks-mandate-covid-19-shots-for-employees/
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