AFGE asked the Biden administration to delay the deadline for federal employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 from Nov. 22 to Jan. 18, to ensure federal employees and federal contractors are subject to the same deadlines.
Although many federal employees work side-by-side with federal contractors, the administration has set two different deadlines for when workers need to be fully vaccinated.
Earlier this month, the administration pushed back the deadline for federal contractors from Dec. 8 to Jan. 18, while the deadline for federal workers remains Nov. 22.
“This double standard has caused confusion and distress among federal employees due to disparate treatment and incongruent deadlines for people who perform the government’s work in the same settings,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley wrote in a letter to the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients and the heads of the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management.
AFGE shares the administration’s goal of ending the pandemic and appreciates the vital role of vaccination in this effort. But setting different compliance deadlines for employees and contractors who work side-by-side is unjustified and harmful to morale.