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September 14, 2021
This is another in our series of Eblasts keeping you informed on the City’s Mandatory Vaccination Policy. On August 25th the City published Ordinance 187134 mandating that all City employees and contract employees must be vaccinated for COVID-19. We attached is a copy of the Ordinance to our September 9th Eblast. Although the Ordinance became effective August 25, LIUNA 777 along with the Coalition of City Unions, currently is in negotiations over the effects of the City’s decision to implement the policy.
While there are many issues we are in the process of negotiating, including pushing back the October compliance date, in this Eblast we include copies of the Exemptions Policy and documents that those requesting such exemptions will need to make their exemptions request. Once the City provides each employee with a copy of these documents, you will have 20 business days to complete your paperwork. This circulation of these final draft documents will not trigger the 20-business day deadline. We are providing these to you now because we wanted to make sure that you have the maximum time to prepare your request.
Under the Ordinance, all current and future City employees have the right to petition for a medical or religious exemption from the mandatory vaccination requirement which will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, using established City procedures for reasonable accommodation requests. The City set September 13th as the deadline for applying for a medical or religious exemption. Because the attached process and forms were not ready until sometime today (Sept. 14th), the City agreed to provide an initial process by which employees could begin the process. We hope that many of you completed an Intent to File COVID-19 Vaccination Exemption Form on the City’s link.
If you filed your Intent to request an exemption, please review the attached documents so that you can prepare for completing your request for an exemption once the City formally provides you with the Notice of finalized process and Request Documents.
As we identified in our continuing Eblasts, Our LA Chapter Board is focused on the continuing effects bargaining and making sure that your rights are protected. We are focused on protecting the rights of our individual members in response to the City implementing such a policy, and we are focused on the legal landscape around these policies because we want to make sure that we are ready to protect everyone’s rights in this important area. As we highlighted in our prior Eblast, the City agreed to our proposal that it guarantee to all employees designated sick leave for time spent getting vaccinated and for any time off due to any negative reaction to the vaccine as the current California law on this is set to expire at the end of this month.
We recognize that the mandatory vaccination issue is critically important to our members, and as your representatives, we are advocating for your rights and will continue to do so. We continue to receive requests for information by individual members and will continue to respond to those requests. There will be more to come, and we will keep our entire MOU 12 family informed as this matter develops. Please share this response with your fellow MOU 12 members.
In Solidarity,
Esteban Lizardo, Business Representative
David Yuen, LA Chapter President
& Principal Detention Officer, LAPD
Art Sweatman, LA Chapter Vice President
& Tree Surgeon Supervisor, Street Services