NYC Education Dept. staffers accused of using fake vaccine cards must have disciplinary hearings

Michael Elsen-Rooney, New York Daily News
·2 min read
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The New York City Education Department can’t place 82 staffers accused of using fake vaccine cards on unpaid leave before they can appeal the allegations, a labor arbitrator has ruled.

The DOE has to work with the teachers union and create a formal appeal process, arbitrator Martin Scheinman decided on June 27.

Now the city is challenging that ruling in state court, arguing Scheinman doesn’t have the authority to intervene in what Education Department officials say is a straightforward violation of the city’s vaccine mandate.

A United Federation of Teachers spokeswoman said the ruling validates the union’s position that the workers can’t “be disciplined without due process,”

City Law Department spokesman Nicholas Paolucci countered that the axed employees were “afforded due process” and “there is no lawful basis for this arbitrator’s decision, which undermines DOE’s authority to enforce an important public health initiative protecting students, school staff and the broader community.”

The legal dispute stems from the DOE’s move in April to place dozens of staffers on unpaid leave after receiving information “from an independent law-enforcement agency” that the employees used bogus COVID-19 vaccination cards to meet the agency’s staff inoculation mandate.

The UFT argued that the workers should have gotten full disciplinary hearings before being placed on unpaid leave, and appealed to the arbitrator who brokered last year’s deal between the DOE and UFT on vaccine exemptions to intervene.

Scheinman ruled that he had jurisdiction over the fake-vaccine-card fight, and ordered the DOE and UFT to sit down last Tuesday to develop an appeal process.

He added that some of the employees accused of using phony proof “assert they are in fact vaccinated,” raising a “factual dispute ripe for adjudication.”

The DOE appealed Scheinman’s decision before the planned sitdown, arguing in Manhattan Supreme Court that the arbitrator “exceeded his authority.” The city’s legal filing pointed to past court decisions ruling that vaccination is a “condition of employment” for municipal employees, and that unvaccinated workers have no right to disciplinary hearings.