Staff report recommends suspending City of Hamilton vaccination policy

Staff are recommending that the City of Hamilton suspend its mandatory COVID-19 vaccination verification policy.

The recommendation is in a report that will be presented to the general issues committee Wednesday.

If approved, the suspension of the policy would eliminate the threat of termination as of June 1, for more than 500 municipal employees in Hamilton.

That includes 64 city employees who were placed on an unpaid leave of absence for non-disclosure of their vaccination status, and 441 employees, who have been participating in twice-weekly rapid antigen testing since last fall.

Employees currently on an unpaid leave of absence would return to work the week of May 2.

The report notes that 7,149 active employees of the City of Hamilton are fully vaccinated, a compliance rate of 94 per cent.

2:08 Select high-risk Ontarians now eligible for COVID-19 anti-viral treatment