Get Vaxxed or Get Axed: Related Cos. to Require Employee Vaccinations
By Celia Young August 2, 2021 3:47 pm
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Related Companies will require its employees to get vaccinated, or their employment will be terminated, joining a growing list of firms stepping up their vaccine requirements.
The large, private real estate owner — based in Manhattan and best known for co-developing Hudson Yards — is requiring both union and nonunion workers to get their first vaccine shot by Aug. 31, Crain’s New York Business reported. Those without a religious or medical exemption who refuse to get vaccinated will be fired.
And the company did not mince its words in an internal memo that Related’s human resources department sent to its employees on Monday.
“Being vaccinated will be a requirement to work at Related,” Crain’s quoted the memo.
Fellow ownership and development company, The Durst Organization, has similarly brought the hammer (or, in this case, the needle) down on its employees. In a directive issued last month, Durst said employees not vaccinated by Labor Day will be fired.
The Washington Post, too, announced that all employees will be required to show proof of vaccination as a condition of their employment, and that guests and contractors that enter Post buildings will face the same requirement, barring religious and medical exceptions.
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s order last week requiring municipal workers to get their doses or receive weekly COVID tests, followed by an identical state requirement, are persuading many private employers to move ahead with their own requirements.
The mandates come as the highly contagious Delta variant is causing coronavirus cases to increase.
Related Companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Celia Young can be reached at cyoung@commercialobserver.com.
