DENVER – Thousands of people who work for the City of Denver, as well as school staff and others in congregate care settings, will be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Thursday. What will happen to them if they are not?
Beginning Friday, Oct. 1, city employees who have not been granted an exemption to the vaccine mandate or who have not uploaded their vaccine records to prove they’re fully vaccinated by the Sept. 30 deadline will start getting what city attorney’s office spokeswoman Jacqlin Davis called “contemplation of discipline letters.”
What happens after? “The presumptive discipline will be dismissal,” Davis told Denver7. But not everyone will get fired right away. Minor violations by employees who are close to being fully vaccinated will not result in discipline, she said.
Other employees, like Denver police officers for example, will face a ten-day suspension without pay at first if they’re not fully vaccinated by Thursday.
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City employees who still refuse to get vaccinated after being suspended will be fired and won’t be able to work with the city for the next five years.
Davis said employees with approved exemptions who fail to comply with their accommodations (meaning mandatory mask-wearing, twice-weekly testing, physical distancing, among others) will be subject to the same progressive disciplinary consequences.
On-call employees, interns and volunteers who fail to comply with the mandate will not be allowed to work for the city until they are fully vaccinated, Davis said.
As of Friday, Sept. 24, 91.9% of all city employees were vaccinated against the novel coronavirus, according to the most recent data provided by the city.
That number varies when broken down by city agency, however.
Only 82.4% of all Denver Police Department officers are vaccinated and that number goes even lower for the Denver Sheriff Department, where only 78.3% of all employees are inoculated.
So far, the city has received 773 exemption requests. Only 52 were denied while another 68 were under review as this Wednesday.
