Citigroup Inc is tightening its vaccination rules as they have decided to fire unvaccinated employees by the end of the month. Employees who are yet to be vaccinated by the 14th of January will first be placed on a paid leave following which they will be fired from the job by the month-end. The rule will be adhered to with the strictest stringency unless the employees are granted an exemption on medical or religious grounds. Citibank had made the announcement concerning its plan about imposing new vaccination rules back in October. After this, Citibank will hold the credit for being the very first major Wall Street Institution to adhere to a vaccination mandate.
The What and Why
After a temporary calm, Covid-19 is back wreaking havoc yet again with its new variant Omicron spreading at an alarming pace that has knocked the world off-balance. The world is closing down once again, and owing to the severity of the situation it is only imperative that strict rules are followed when it comes to vaccination since that is the only shield available at the moment against the virus.
The pandemic had disrupted the rhythm of the financial industry a year ago. And now it is trying to bring its workers back to the premises safely. However, the rapidly spreading Omicron virus has made this task quite hard. Thus the strict measures taken by a majority of the companies are justifiable. Apart from Citibank, other Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanely, and JP Morgan Chase and Co have asked employees who are not yet vaccinated to work from home. However, none has taken up such sharp measures as Citibank. The “no-jab no-job” policy has been followed by quite a few US companies like Google and United Airlines. Almost 90 percent of the employees in Citibank have adhered to the vaccine mandate so far.
This is what Citibank said about the developments,
“You are welcome to apply for other roles at Citi in the future as long as you are compliant with Citi’s vaccination policy. If you are not vaccinated, we urge you to get vaccinated as soon as possible.”
It is not the pandemic alone that has wreaked havoc in the world, the whole question of vaccination has also created quite a divide as some people present a strong opposition towards vaccination. Therefore the challenge at hand is massive and only time will tell how the companies will go forward implementing these policies.
