In recent years, New York City has been plagued by a deadly pandemic, with many city and private sector workers forced to work from home, depriving New York of its lifeblood and destroying its economy.
But as virus cases appear to stabilize and vaccinations become more widespread, city officials plan to send a message that New York will return to normal: on May 3, the city will need its municipal office employees to start reporting in person.
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s decision to bring the country’s largest municipal workforce back to office is a major turning point for a city that has served as the national hub of the coronavirus pandemic, addressing the dangers of life in densely packed world capitals symbolize.
The move is intended to broadcast that New York City will soon be open for business, and to encourage private businesses to follow suit. This increases the hopes of landlords whose skyscrapers are largely empty when office workers stay at home.
“We’re going to make it safe, but we need our city workers in their offices where they can do the most to help their fellow New Yorkers,” he said. De Blasio said Tuesday. “And it’s also going to send a powerful message about the progress of this city.”
Across the country, city and state leaders have been grappling with the question of how and when to reopen safely, as the worst of the pandemic appears to be. New York was generally more cautious than places like Texas, which lifted the restrictions of the mask and was able to fully reopen businesses.
Yet the move through the city has still raised concerns among some workers and union leaders who fear the return to office is premature. New York City has the highest coronavirus cases in the country. Many workers will have to commute by mass transportation for an hour or more. Others will have to juggle their children’s episodic school schedules with their new personal work requirements.
The new policy, which will be implemented in phases in a few weeks, will affect approximately 80,000 employees who worked remotely, including business workers, computer specialists and clerks. The rest of the approximately 300,000 staff members in the city, many of whom are uniformed personnel, including police officers, firefighters and sanitation workers, have already reported to the site.
According to a city hall spokesman, vaccination is not mandatory for those returning to the office due to legal concerns. City officials strongly encourage their workers to be vaccinated and try to facilitate the process. Nevertheless, a survey by the city power in January suggested that vaccination hesitation differs significantly according to agencies, and city hall could not give an estimate of how many municipal workers have already received vaccinations.
Face masks will also be strongly encouraged, but not required in all situations in the workplace: A submission from the city’s Department of Administrative Services on March 18 said agency leaders should encourage face masks to be worn at all times, even though the distance of six feet may be maintained. “Laura Anglin, deputy mayor, on Tuesday clarified the policy and said that if they can not distance themselves socially, they must wear masks.
Henry Garrido, executive director of the city’s largest municipal union, District Council 37, has expressed concern about its members working in densely packed call centers, as well as those in social services, where interactions with maskless clients can be common. All city workers who deal directly with the public are currently eligible, regardless of age.
About 200 DC 37 members died of the coronavirus, due to what Mr. Garrido described early in the pandemic as “foggy, unclear” guidelines for public health, a lack of protective equipment and inconsistent city and state policies.
“We do not want to repeat the mistakes,” he said. Garrido said. “I want to make sure the offices are absolutely ready for workers to come back.”
He said the union believed at least 20 percent of its 100,000 city workers had received at least one dose of the vaccine.
The return to municipal office space has a range of security requirements. According to the reviews reviewed by The Times, the total number of occupants of a space may not exceed 50 percent of the maximum number of people, as defined by the building code.
Ventilation systems need to be adjusted to maximize airflow. Six foot markers must be placed at all entrances and elevators. Agencies will need to include one-way traffic through their offices where possible. Elevator occupancy will be limited, and offices must adhere to strict cleaning standards.
The task is likely to be a heavier lift for agencies that distribute offices in the city and serve clients, compared to those concentrated in one office building.
Property and business leaders have been arguing for months that a return to the office is the key to the city’s economic recovery. Many of the city’s worst small businesses are in Manhattan’s commercial core, and New York’s budget is heavily dependent on real estate taxes.
The Partnership for New York City, a business group, recently said it expects nearly half of Manhattan’s one million office workers to return to office by September, although “most will work at least part-time remotely.” At the beginning of March, only 10 percent of the workers were back in office.
“Above all, it’s an important momentum builder,” said Reggie Thomas, a senior vice president at the Real Estate Board of New York.
Yet some health experts are less sure that now is the time. “It may well be that May is a good time to think about starting to bring people back,” but thanks to the coronavirus variants, there is no guarantee, said Dr Ronald Scott Braithwaite, a professor of medicine and population health. NYU Grossman, said. School of Medicine. “It’s a difficult call.”
Dr Braithwaite noted that the cases were not ‘in a sharp decline in New York, suggesting that the plateau in case of numbers is a function of the tension between the new variants of the disease circulating in the city and the growing number of New Yorkers have been vaccinated or acquired antibodies after infection.
A spokesman for the mayor said that if matters increased again, the return would be delayed.