Citigroup to Fire Unvaccinated Employees Under 'No Jab No Job' Policy; Details Here

Citigroup Inc staff in the United States who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 14 will be placed on unpaid leave and fired at the end of the month unless they are granted an exemption, according to a company memo seen by Reuters on Friday. While Citigroup is the first Wall Street bank to enforce a vaccine mandate, a handful of other major U.S. companies have introduced “no-jab, no-job” policies, including Google and United Airlines, with varying degrees of stringency. The bank said then it was complying with the policy of U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration requiring all workers supporting government contracts to be fully vaccinated, as the government was a “large and important” client. Columbia Business School professor Adam Galinsky, who advises companies on their return-to-office strategies, said many companies initially welcomed the White House’s vaccine mandate because it took the matter out of their hands. “If it doesn’t hold then they are going to have the decision put back in their hands and they will have to do something.” Many financial firms have pushed back their return-to-office plans and are encouraging staff to get vaccinated and boosted, but have so far avoided vaccine mandates for legal reasons.