WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis will require all employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of August in preparation for the bank’s return to more in-person work, the bank’s president Neel Kashkari said on Wednesday.
“In order to fulfill our public-service mission, we need more face-to-face contact than remote work allows, but there is no way for us to bring a critical mass of our staff back into our facilities and maintain social distancing,” Kashkari said in an essay published on the bank’s website. “Hence, we need our employees to be vaccinated.”
More than 82% of the bank’s employees are already vaccinated, including Kashkari and the rest of the senior leadership, the essay said. But that still leaves almost 200 employees who have not said what their vaccination plans are.
All staff will need to be vaccinated in order to continue their employment, he said, with exceptions allowed for those prevented by medical conditions or “sincerely held religious beliefs.”
New hires will also be subject to the vaccination requirement.
(Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
