Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings has announced a cap on disciplinary actions that can be taken against county employees who aren’t fully vaccinated for COVID-19 by Oct. 31.
Demings put a policy in place requiring county employees to get a first dose of a COVID shot by Sept. 30 and to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 31.
Demings says 94 percent of nonunion employees and 69 percent of union employees are in compliance, so far.
But he says he wants to make it clear that no one will be fired if they aren’t inoculated in time.
“It was never my intention to terminate anyone from our employment. Instead, my desire and goal was to increase the rate of vaccinations amongst our employees and we’ve accomplished that.”
Demings says noncompliant employees can only be reprimanded in writing and additional health screenings will be put in place for them.
“We are a compassionate and caring employer, but we must also balance that with protecting our employees and the public. So I want to ensure those who are not in compliance that they understand, they should not be in fear of losing their jobs or their incomes in order to support their families,” he says.
About 600 Orange County firefighters have still not gotten the shot.
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