On September 20, 2022, Mayor Eric Adams announced that New York City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private employers is ending.  The City’s mandate for municipal employees, however, will remain in effect.

The private employer mandate, which will be lifted as of November 1, 2022, was the first of its kind for any municipality in the nation when it went into effect on December 27, 2021.  With its broad definitions of “covered entity” and “covered worker,” the mandate has required private employers in New York City to ensure that, subject to reasonable accommodations, all covered workers are vaccinated against COVID-19 before they enter the workplace.  The mandate also imposed recordkeeping and posting requirements on private employers.

While the mandate will soon end, New York City private employers are still permitted to voluntarily adopt COVID-19 vaccine mandates that are compliant with federal, New York State, and New York City laws, something the City “continues to strongly urge” private employers to do, according to the Mayor’s Office.

We are continuing to monitor this development, as little written guidance has yet been issued.  In the meantime, given these announced changes, New York City employers should:

  • Assess their current policies and practices with respect to vaccination requirements for employees. Provided they are not subject to another vaccine mandate, employers should consider if and how they want to modify or remove vaccine requirements for in-person work as of November 1st.
  • Develop a process for evaluating whether, and if so, how to return employees who have been out of the workplace, because of the private employer mandate.
  • Be prepared to assess potential accommodation requests from employees, who have a high risk of contracting or having a severe reaction to COVID-19 and are concerned about interacting with unvaccinated workers after November 1st.
  • Consider whether this change, as well as similar pronouncements from Governor Hochul, suggest other workplace changes, including loosening of health and safety protocols in the workplace.
  • Continue to maintain relevant records demonstrating past compliance with the private employer mandate.
Back to Workforce Bulletin Blog

Search This Blog

Blog Editors

Authors

Related Services

Topics

Archives

Jump to Page

Subscribe

Sign up to receive an email notification when new Workforce Bulletin posts are published:

Privacy Preference Center

When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.