Columbia sets COVID vaccine deadline for city employees; penalties put in place
The city of Columbia rolled out its employee COVID-19 vaccination mandate policy on Monday, and while it doesn’t call for the firing of employees who don’t get the shots, it does call for financial and other consequences for those who aren’t vaccinated by the end of the year.
The city has about 2,200 employees, and city manager Teresa Wilson told The State Monday that 77% of them were fully vaccinated, and that nearly 81% had gotten at least one shot. Columbia City Council in September authorized city staff to create a vaccine mandate policy, and Wilson had circled Nov. 1 as the date by which that policy would roll out.
Released Monday, it calls for all Columbia city employees to be fully vaccinated by Dec. 31. Those who do not get the shots would get a written reprimand, and would be subject to a number of consequences until they become fully vaccinated.
Those consequences include periodic COVID-19 testing; adherence to “strict” safety protocols, including mask wearing; ineligibility for optional training and travel; ineligibility for work-related travel, including for conferences; ineligibility for a take-home car, except for when on-call; ineligibility for cost-of-living and merit pay raises; ineligibility for promotions to a higher pay grade; and ineligibility for lateral transfers to another department.
The policy does make way for employees to seek an exemption or deferral for the vaccine, including for a current pregnancy, a medical condition or religious reasons. Employees seeking those exemptions need to apply for them by Nov. 15.
The city is continuing to offer a $500 bonus to employees to get the vaccinations, Wilson said.
“We want them to get vaccinated,” Wilson said. “Whatever incentive helps with that to encourage them, we are going to do that.”
New cases of the coronavirus continue to fall in South Carolina. On Monday, the state Department of Health and Environmental Control announced 505 new cases, two new deaths and a percent positive on the cases of 2.9%.
In September, the city was at about 50% of its employees fully vaccinated, and Wilson said she is pleased with the progress since then to climb up to near 80%. She said it is tough to predict how much higher it could go.
“I don’t know that we will get to 100% by the end of the calendar year, but I think we are going to get a lot closer to it,” the city manager said. “All the unvaccinated employees, I’ve made an attempt to speak to them personally. I’m not discounting their feelings about vaccinations, their personal beliefs, their research about vaccinations.
“I’m trying to get them to think about this in the way that I’m trying to reconcile it. And that’s that we are public servants. With being a public service organization ... we have to maintain a healthy workforce to make sure that all the essential services are provided.”
This story was originally published November 1, 2021 at 5:34 PM.
