NEW YORK — Several dozen New York City teachers and other school employees who authorities say submitted fraudulent proof of COVID-19 vaccination have been suspended starting Monday.
The United Federation of Teachers (or UFT) is challenging the disciplinary action, which it says violates its collective bargaining agreement. The employees in question were placed on leave after investigators determined they had provided false immunization cards, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Education said.
“Fraudulent immunization cards are not only illegal, they also undermine the best line of protection our schools have against COVID-19: universal adult vaccination,” spokesman Nathaniel Styer said in a statement. “We immediately took steps to put these employees, fewer than 100, on unpaid leave.”
A COVID-19 vaccination mandate went into effect for New York City school employees last fall and was later expanded to include all city employees.
The school vaccination rule was a key component of the city’s policy to open all classrooms to in-person learning this academic year, instead of offering a remote option as some school districts did.
The UFT said in a notice of claim filed Friday that about 82 of its members, including teachers, school psychologists and others, were notified last week that they would be placed on unpaid leave because they had provided false proof of vaccination.
The union said in the notice, a first step in filing a lawsuit, that the employees should not have been disciplined without a due process hearing and that the action violates the collective bargaining agreement between the city and the union.
The union called the suspension without pay of its members “arbitrary, capricious” and “an abuse of discretion.”
Education Department officials did not describe the evidence that led authorities to determine that some employees had falsified their vaccination cards, but said the matter was under investigation.
The furloughed workers are a small fraction of the approximately 142,000 employees in the public school system.
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