Los Angeles County’s sweeping mandate requiring all county employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 took effect at midnight on Oct. 8, leaving unvaccinated county employees uncertain of their fate.
Los Angeles Board of Supervisors Chair Hilda Solis issued an executive order in August mandating that all county workers be vaccinated by Oct. 8—an order which the rest of the board later ratified. Under the mandate, employees are to either be fully vaccinated or get a COVID-19 test each week and “eventually get vaccinated, unless they are exempted for health or religious beliefs,” Supervisor Sheila Kuehl told The Epoch Times in a previous interview.
County Says Employees Who Don’t Vaccinate Will Be Terminated
A spokesperson for the county’s Chief Executive Office told The Epoch Times via email that all employees who haven’t provided proof of full vaccination and haven’t submitted a request for exemption will receive a notice of vaccine requirement.“The notice will inform them that they have 45 days to register as fully vaccinated,” the spokesperson said. “Discipline for those who continue not to comply with the county’s policy face a 5-day suspension after 45 days and termination 30 days after that.”
“I’m not forcing anyone. The issue has become so politicized,” Villanueva said. “There are entire groups of employees that are willing to be fired and laid off rather than get vaccinated, so I don’t want to be in a position to lose 5 to 10 percent of my workforce overnight on a vaccine mandate.”
In a press conference last month, Los Angeles Public Health Department (LAPHD) Director Barbara Ferrer said LAPHD employees will not be terminated for missing the Oct. 1 vaccination deadline but instead will be “reassigned” until they’re fully vaccinated or receive a religious or medical exemption.
County Employee Reactions
The vaccine requirement has sparked outrage from people who say the county’s mandate violates their individual and health freedoms.“The county must consider and offer reasonable accommodations as a middle ground between individual freedoms and collective rights,” the lawsuit stated. “It did not do that. Instead, it viewed this sensitive personal issue through the lens of partisan politics.”
PERK group didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time.