JPMorgan Chase’s New York employees who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 risk losing their jobs and won’t get paid if they refuse to comply with the company’s vaccination requirements, Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon suggested on Monday.
“If you aren’t going to get vaxxed, you won’t be able to work in that office,” Dimon told
Reuters. “We’re not going to pay you not to work in the office,” Dimon said. “We want people to get vaccinated.”
When asked whether or not JPMorgan Chase has decided on a possible future policy that would allow employees to work between both home and the office, Dimon said, “We don’t have to answer this right away.”
Last month, the investment bank told its unvaccinated staff in Manhattan to work from home, having previously allowed employees who have not yet received the shots to work in the office as long as they underwent regular testing twice a week, Reuters
reported.
The Epoch Times has contacted JPMorgan Chase for further comment.
JPMorgan Chase is one of a number of banks that are pushing for employees returning to the office to be vaccinated against COVID-19, particularly in light of the recent fast-spreading Omicron variant.
Earlier this month, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, which is headquartered in New York City, changed its return-to-office plans for employees and asked eligible U.S. staff to work from home until Jan. 18.
However, U.S. employees of the multinational investment bank who are returning to offices would
need to get a COVID-19 booster shot, if eligible, by Feb. 1 in order to enter company premises.
In October, Citigroup, the nation’s third-largest bank, said that it will require all U.S. employees to be
fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment.
The group is offering a $200 incentive to each of its 65,000 U.S. employees when they submit proof of vaccination by the Jan. 14, 2022, deadline but Sara Wechter, head of HR at the bank, confirmed that medical and religious exemptions will be assessed.
New York is currently witnessing a wave of new COVID-19 cases, driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant. As of Jan. 9, there were 54,749 positive cases, 12,022 hospitalizations and 135 new deaths reported by health care facilities, New York
Governor Kathy Hochul said.
Meanwhile, as of Monday, 95 percent of adult New Yorkers have had at least one vaccine dose, while 85.4 percent of all New Yorkers have also had at least one dose of the vaccine. In total, 34,440,048 total doses have been administered throughout New York, Hochul
said. The state has some of the strictest COVID-19 protocols in place, such as mandating vaccine passports for multiple indoor settings, including for dining, entertainment, and fitness venues. The vaccination requirements apply to those aged 5 and older.
Last week, Hochul said the state will expand its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for
health care workers to include booster shots, making it the first state to require boosters for health care employees. Under the mandate, health care workers will have to get boosters within two weeks of their eligibility and only medical—not religious—exemptions will be accepted, consistent with previous mandates on COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 vaccines.
