COVID vaccine mandate for NYPD union members invalid — New York judge

A New York judge has ruled that the city’s mandate requiring members of the New York City Police Department to be vaccinated against COVID-19 is invalid as applied to members of the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York.

In the decision, State Supreme Court Justice Lyle Frank, sitting in Manhattan, ordered that members of the union that were caused to be “wrongfully terminated and/or put on leave without pay a result of non-compliance” be reinstated.

The filing said that the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s “conduct of unilaterally creating a condition of employment is improper,”

“In support of its contention that the DOH Commissioner can unilaterally create employment conditions, respondents cite to holdings of recently decided federal cases and trial court decisions. This argument too is unpersuasive. Respondents cite a multitude of cases where this Court, as well as others, have denied petitions based on vaccination being a condition of employment, however in those instances the City and the respective union collectively bargained to include the vaccination mandate as a new condition of employment, that is not the case here,” wrote Frank, adding that the unilateral imposition of a condition of employment is not something the department or Mayor Eric Adams could do without collective bargaining.