Some Los Angeles officials want vaccine mandate for city workers
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- As California moves to require state employees and health care workers to show proof of vaccination or submit to weekly testing, some Los Angeles officials are calling for the city to do the same.
L.A. City Councilmembers Kevin de León and Mark Ridley-Thomas want the city to take a tougher stance on vaccinations for city workers.
Ridley-Thomas plans to introduce a motion at Wednesday's city council meeting that would "direct staff to develop a policy to require all City employees be fully vaccinated for the COVID-19 virus; and report their COVID-19 vaccination status to the appropriate City department."
"The time for mandating vaccinations for city employees has come," Ridley-Thomas tweeted Monday evening. "We must act in interest of the public and all city workers. It's a matter of public health and safety. And. It's. Urgent!"
RELATED: California to require vaccination or testing for state employees and health care workers
De León also wants the city to follow Gov. Gavin Newsom's lead and force employees to get vaccinated.
Pasadena announced earlier this month it would mandate city employees to be vaccinated and is working to get the policy in place as soon as a vaccine receives approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Meanwhile, state officials say vaccines are not being mandated, but the governor is urging private businesses to look at this and adopt similar rules.
There are about 240,000 state employees and 2 million health care workers. The rule will apply to all health care workers across the state, both public and private.
Newsom says the new policy for state workers will take effect Aug. 2 and testing will be phased in during the next few weeks.
