Citigroup to lay off unvaccinated US employees
The American bank Citigroup is going to send employees in the United States who have not yet been vaccinated against Covid-19 by Friday on unpaid leave. They are fired at the end of the month unless they have an exception for medical or religious reasons. This is apparent from an internal memo that was viewed on Friday by the Reuters news agency.
This makes the bank, which announced in October that it would introduce a strict vaccination policy, the first on Wall Street to strictly comply with a vaccination obligation. The financial sector is grappling with how employees can safely return to the office so normal business can resume – despite a wave of the contagious Omikron variant of the coronavirus.
Other major Wall Street banks, including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase, have instructed unvaccinated employees to work from home, but none have gone as far as firing staff. Some other major US companies, including Google and United Airlines, have enacted “no-jab, no-job” policies, with varying rigors.
More than 90 percent of Citigroup employees have so far met vaccination requirements, and that figure is rising rapidly, according to a Reuters source. The bank has previously stated that it wants to comply with the policy of President Joe Biden’s administration to require employees working on government contracts to be vaccinated. However, compulsory vaccination is controversial in the US; The U.S. Supreme Court held a hearing Friday on a vaccination requirement for companies of 100 employees or more. Republican representatives from states and business groups have filed a lawsuit against that measure.
Welcome to this blog
In this blog, the editors of NRC the weekend of 8 and 9 January report on the most important developments regarding the corona crisis. On Friday, RIVM announced that children under 12 are welcome for a corona vaccination from January 18, and the number of corona patients in Dutch hospitals fell again. In the meantime, RIVM reported that 35,000 positive corona tests were taken between Thursday and Friday morning: a daily record. In Germany, a so-called 2G-plus policy was introduced for cafes and restaurants. This means that from now on people who have been double vaccinated (or have recovered from a corona infection) but have not yet had a booster shot, will now have to show negative test evidence to be able to visit the catering industry.
Read Friday’s entire blog here: Nearly 35,000 positive test results, highest number ever
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