Staggered furloughs begin for thousands of NYC municipal employees
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MAY 06: Workers clean a station as the New York City subway system, the largest public transportation system in the nation, for nightly cleaning due to the continued spread of the coronavirus on May 06, 2020 in New York City. Following reports of homeless New Yorkers sleeping on the trains and the deaths of numerous subway employees, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has decided to close New York’s subway system from 1am to 5am every evening for a deep cleaning. New York continues to be the national center of the COVID-19 outbreak. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
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NEW YORK CITY, NY (NewsNation Now) — New York City begins staggered furloughs Thursday for thousands of city employees. It is a symbolic measure to save the city almost $22 million as it addresses a fiscal crisis.
The furloughs will be conducted over several months. It will last five days per employee.
Over 9,000 municipal workers, 495 city hall staffers, and even Mayor Bill de Blasio, will all take a five-day furlough over the next few months.
A spokesperson for the mayor did emphasize that de Blasio would work on a volunteer basis during his furlough days.
Originally de Blasio announced just city hall employees would furlough before expanding that to include 9,000 municipal workers.
“It has real human consequences, but it is necessary,” de Blasio said in the announcement of additional furloughs. “We need to keep finding savings to keep bridging us to give us a chance to get something better than layoffs. No one wants to see layoffs, but unfortunately they’re still on the table.”
The city faces a 1-billion-dollar budget shortfall in their 2021 budget. The Independent Budget Office also predicted in April the city could lose 475,000 jobs and $10 billion in tax revenue through mid-2021.
De Blasio also considered laying off 22,000 city workers this month in response to the revenue crisis but announced a decision to hold off on layoffs in August.
