As city and state employees in New York are facing mandatory vaccination (or weekly testing) with concerns over the spread of the delta variant, more private sector employers are implementing their own vaccination policies alongside their reopening plans.
Danny Meyer, the restaurateur and chairman of the New York City Economic Development Corporation's board of directors, announced on CNBC Thursday morning that he would require all employees and customers at all of his NYC and Washington, D.C. restaurants — which include Gramercy Tavern and Union Square Cafe — to be vaccinated by mid-September.
"This is the most logical thing I’ve ever seen," Meyer said on Squawk Box. "I’m not a scientist, but I know how to read data and what I see is that this is a crisis of people who have not been vaccinated, and I feel strong responsibility, on our part as business leaders, to take care of our team and our guests, and that’s what we’re doing."
On Thursday, New York City surpassed 1,000 COVID cases for the first time since May 6th, 2021.
Meyer also said that most of his employees were vaccinated and that his company, Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG), was giving staff eight hours of pay for each COVID shot.
A message on the USHG website says the requirement will start in September: "To keep our community safe, from September 7, 2021 forward we are requiring all guests to show proof they are fully vaccinated. Our teams are required to be fully vaccinated as well. Please bring along either your physical Covid-19 vaccine card, your New York State Excelsior Pass, your relevant state-provided vaccine pass, or a photo of your vaccination card to share upon arrival."
Daily Provisions, one of Meyer's restaurants.
Meyer is also founder of the national chain Shake Shack, and said that Shake Shack will set its own policy.
Mayor Bill de Blasio praised Meyer, saying during his media briefing, "I want everybody—every government entity, every private organization—go as far as you can go, that's what I said and look, here's Danny doing it. We talked to him as he was preparing. Encouraged and supported him."
The mayor had urged private employers last week to encourage vaccinations, and on Monday said that city employees would be required to be vaccinated by September 13th or would need to undergo weekly COVID-19 testing. Governor Andrew Cuomo followed suit on Wednesday with a state employee vaccination-or-weekly testing mandate.
President Joe Biden just announced on Thursday afternoon that federal employees—plus on-site contractors—would also need to be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing.
Andrew Rigie, the executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, said of Meyer's move, "We support restaurants and bars that are enforcing vaccine requirements to protect the safety of their workers and customers, and also appreciate that the decision has become more complicated for other businesses to follow."
Rigie also reflected on the impact of the extremely transmissible variant, "The Delta variant is certainly trending uneasiness throughout the five boroughs, and all options must be considered to ensure the city doesn’t jeopardize public health. Restaurants can’t afford another wave of pandemic-related business restrictions, especially when the industry faces such a long road to full recovery."
The Durst Organization, the real estate company, is requiring all of its non-union employees to be vaccinated by September 6th, or else they will be fired. A spokesperson told Crain's, "For our corporate employees, unless they receive a medical or religious accommodation, if they are not vaccinated by Sept. 6th they will be separated from the company." Related Companies, the developer of Hudson Yards, is requiring vaccinations from employees.
This week Twitter closed its NYC and San Francisco offices indefinitely, and Apple and Google pushed their return to work dates to October and mid-October respectively. Google has also required its employees to be vaccinated.
"The city’s private sector professional workforce is largely vaccinated — probably 90%— so asking those employers to do a vaccine mandate is pretty meaningless," Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, which helps represent business interests, told Gothamist. "The government has largely identified the communities and populations where vaccination rates are low and that is where the focus and outreach should be. A federal mandate that all Americans who are not immune compromised get vaccinated is the only way to beat this virus."
Wylde added, "And threatening to fire people at the same time employers are trying to attract workers back to their offices and the city seems pretty counterproductive."
