LOS ANGELES—At least 244 full-time city employees are on unpaid leave Dec. 20 after Los Angeles’ mandate that municipal workers get vaccinated against COVID-19 went into effect on Saturday, according to figures shared by Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office.
Just over 80 percent of the city’s employees complied with the vaccination mandate by the deadline, with another 1.33 percent stating that they are partially vaccinated. The numbers do not include employees of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
While 244 full-time employees were placed on unpaid leave as of Friday, an additional 2,508 part-time employees were either placed on unpaid leave or not scheduled for work due to not complying with the vaccination mandate by either getting vaccinated or submitting a medical or religious exemption request.
A total of 2,789 exemption requests were filed as of Friday, but that figure includes many duplicates submitted by the same people and is not representative of the number of people who filed for exemptions.
Exemptions will be reviewed over the coming months.
According to the mandate, if an exemption request is denied, the employee will have five business days to file an appeal. If they do not appeal the decision, they will be issued a notice that they must submit proof of vaccination. Failure to do so would result in “corrective action.”
According to figures shared by the mayor’s office Monday, three city departments have a 100 percent vaccination rate: the Civil + Human Rights and Equity Department; the Los Angeles City Tourism Department; and the Public Accountability Department.
The lowest vaccination rates among departments include the Employee Relations Board, which the figures show has only a 37.5 percent vaccination rate, and the Department of Recreation and Parks, with a 63.39 percent vaccination rate.
