The New York Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered New York City to reinstate all employees that were fired over their vaccination status, calling the decision to terminate unvaccinated employees an “arbitrary and capricious action.”
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Department of Sanitation employees fired in February 2022 against the City of New York, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the New York Department of Sanitation, Commissioner of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene David Chokshi, and New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) in response to the blanket vaccine mandates, CNN reports
? BREAKING: NY Supreme Court orders reinstatement of fired unvaxxed staff, WITH backpay, says “Being vaccinated does not prevent an individual from contracting or transmitting Covid-19,” adding that the mandates were “about compliance” >> https://t.co/MSfxjj5LVq
— Raheem J. Kassam (@RaheemKassam) October 25, 2022
“Though vaccination should be encouraged, public employees should not have been terminated for their noncompliance,” Supreme Court Justice Ralph Porzio wrote.
The ruling would reinstate fired unvaccinated employees and order backpay ABC NY reported.
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NY State Supreme Court reinstates all fired unvaccinated employees, orders backpay, says the state violated rights, acted arbitrary & capricious, notes:“Being vaccinated does not prevent an individual from contracting or transmitting Covid-19.”https://t.co/nvOsWfa56S pic.twitter.com/WhH4wje2bQ— Marina Medvin ?? (@MarinaMedvin) October 25, 2022
The court also found Adams and other NYC agencies presented no scientific basis for imposing vaccine mandates on public employees while providing exemptions for certain private professions.
“We just defeated the vaccine mandate for every single city employee,” LaVeglia said.
A #NewYork Supreme Court judge struck down the #VaccineMandate for all #NewYorkCity workers, finding the rule to be unconstitutional, arbitrary, and capricious. https://t.co/qmcXvNWDbt
— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) October 25, 2022
The NYC Board of Health voted unanimously Tuesday morning to repeal the vaccine mandate for private employees, as initially announced by Mayor Eric Adams on Sept. 20.
The rules will expire on Tuesday, Nov. 1, as per the mayor’s announcement at that time.
“There is nothing in the record to support the rationality of keeping a vaccination mandate for public employees, while vacating the mandate for private sector employees or creating a carveout for certain professions, like athletes, artists, and performers.”
“This is clearly an arbitrary and capricious action because we are dealing with identical unvaccinated people being treated differently by the same administrative agency,” the court added.
NYC naturally is appealing the case, but one can not find any logical reasoning as to why, as the City released a vauge response,
A spokesman with the law department released the following statement:
“The city strongly disagrees with this ruling as the mandate is firmly grounded in law and is critical to New Yorkers’ public health. We have already filed an appeal. In the meantime, the mandate remains in place as this ruling pertains solely to the individual petitioners in this case. We continue to review the court’s decision, which conflicts with numerous other rulings already upholding the mandate.”