City of Tucson makes plans to fire 300 workers

[ad_1]

TUCSON, Arizona (KOLD News 13) – The city of Tucson plans to fire up to 300 of its employees who refused to be vaccinated. The city has nearly 4,000 workers.

The city council voted 4 to 3 in support of a plan drawn up by City Manager Michael Ortega to lay off workers who have not been vaccinated or requested and who have received religious or medical exemptions.

This has been followed by months of deliberations since the mayor and council passed a vaccination mandate on August 13, 2021 with 6: 1 votes.

Of the 300 workers dismissed, 50 are police officers and 53 are firefighters.

“My goal and my hope is that nobody loses their job,” said Ortega. “That’s not my intention here.”

Ortega said there was still time for workers to get vaccinated or a waiver before December 1.

In the meantime, the city is reviewing its options if the layoffs become a reality.

“Hire temporary workers, hire retirees, hire temporary workers on a temporary basis,” said Ortega. “These are all options that are available to us.”

In addition, the city administrator’s office will be setting up an aggressive recruiting plan with the aim of finding permanent replacements.

Public security is a problem with the loss of so many officers at the same time, but Ortega has a plan for it.

“We are very focused on the community safety pilot program, which is about hiring community service officers to take some of these non-emergency calls and support the effort,” he said.

That was an ongoing effort that could be expanded.

Despite all the planning, unexpected problems can arise.

“Maybe there will be some temporary bumps in the road,” said Steve Kozachik, Tucson City Council member who supported the city manager’s plan. “But that’s a risk I want to take when balancing this against public safety, which is and should be our top priority.”

The 300 workers who have not been vaccinated are also placed in a five-day ban without pay.

All of this could be in vain as Arizona Governor Doug Ducey filed a lawsuit against Tucson over its vaccine mandate seeking a violation of state law.

A lower court judge made a ruling that gave Tucson and others approval for mask and vaccine mandates.

The Arizona State Supreme Court will hear arguments on November 2, 2021, but there is no prediction of when it could rule.

“We are prepared for whatever comes,” said Ortega. “If we get another direction, we’ll deal with that too.”

Copyright 2021 KOLD News 13. All rights reserved.

[ad_2]