Arbitration Panel issues a stay on placing employees on leave; the Police Department’s updated compliance rate is 95 percent
PHILADELPHIA – The City of Philadelphia today announced that an interest arbitration panel governing the implementation of the City’s workforce vaccine mandate for employees represented by the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) has issued an Award that delays placing employees on leave until further notice; this stay thus extends to all represented City employees due to the contracts negotiated with other labor unions. This stay was issued in light of the significant progress represented in the current figures provided by the Philadelphia Police Department and because parties are still in the process of compiling data regarding vaccinated and unvaccinated officers.
The panel noted encouraging progress reflected in the updated accounting, including the fact that 95 percent of the Police Department is fully vaccinated, has received a first vaccination shot, or has submitted a request for a medical or religious exemption.
This latest Award is the second issued by the arbitration panel. On Tuesday, February 1, the panel issued an Award addressing mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for members of the FOP Lodge 5 bargaining unit. That Award required the parties to provide the panel with an updated accounting of vaccinated and unvaccinated officers by Friday, February 18, after which the panel would reconvene to determine consequences to be effective tomorrow, Tuesday, March 1 for non-compliant officers. On Friday, February 25, the panel convened to review the latest accounting and deliberate regarding potential consequences for non-compliance.
While the stay ordered in today’s Award is in place, all other requirements regarding masking and testing remain in place as the City continues to work with departments to get non-compliant employees to either receive the COVID-19 vaccination or submit a formal request for exemption to the City’s Employees Relations Unit. The City expects the panel to meet again in the coming days to determine final consequences for any employee that remains non-compliant, which will be announced after that decision is made by the panel.
The City has been arduously working to implement the workforce vaccination mandate since it was announced in November 2021. While the City issued a vaccination mandate for all employees—those represented by unions and those that are unrepresented—it is important to understand that the City must negotiate the impact of this new requirement with its labor union partners before it officially goes into effect for employees represented by those unions.
The Award can be found online.
As of Monday, February 28, over 22,000—or 92 percent—of all represented employees have either provided the City with proof of their vaccination status or have an approved or pending exemption request. City employee vaccine rates of employees fully vaccinated by departments as of Monday, February 28 are available online. The percentages reported online should also be understood as minimums as they have been developed using data on vaccine administrations that took place in Philadelphia.