Durst Organization CEO Douglas Durst (Getty)
Nonunion employees of the Durst Organization have a decision to make: get vaccinated or get a new job.
The development firm gave its corporate employees until Sept. 6 — the day after Labor Day — to be vaccinated against Covid. If they are not, those employees will be fired, Crain’s reported.
The only exemptions from the policy are for religious or medical reasons. It’s not clear if employees need to have completed their vaccination series or simply started it for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which both require two shots several weeks apart.
Durst employs around 350 corporate employees. The company also employs about 700 union members, for whom the new policy will not apply. Tenants at Durst Organization buildings can make their own decisions about vaccination requirements.
Earlier this month, the Department of Justice ruled that businesses could mandate vaccination for employees. A number of companies besides Durst have taken that step, while others have postponed planned returns to the offices amid the surging Delta variant.
State employees of New York are required to be vaccinated by the same Sept. 6 date or be subject to weekly Covid testing. New York City employees have until Sept. 13.
Other companies, such as Apple, are choosing to postpone a return to the office as they wait to see how the Delta variant continues to affect case counts.
[Crain’s] — Holden Walter-Warner
