NYC postpones layoffs of 22,000 workers

New York City has postponed the planned layoffs of 22,000 city workers, city officials announced Monday.

The city was set to notify workers Monday whether they would be laid off over the next month. However, union leaders persuaded Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) to delay the cuts and explore alternate ways to cut costs.

Fueled largely by the coronavirus pandemic, the city faces a $9 billion deficit over the next two years and a $1 billion labor gap in the current fiscal year’s budget.

The next fiscal year, meanwhile, has a labor deficit of about $4.2 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported. “Unions are working hard to find creative solutions, and asked for more time,” mayoral spokesman Bill Neidhardt said in a statement, although he did not offer a new timeline for layoff notices.

De Blasio has asked state lawmakers to allow the city to borrow $5 billion, with backing from union leaders and city council members. However, the state Senate’s Democratic majority has thus far objected to the proposal.

“To stop these layoffs altogether, there is a simple solution: long-term borrowing,” Neidhardt said. The city is required to inform any of its 325,000 employees if they are in danger of losing their jobs with at least 30 days’ notice.

Union leaders have pointed to the front-line work that city employees have done during the pandemic.

“If we’re going to get together and go through the most difficult things to be done, you can’t do it under the threat of layoffs,” Henry Garrido, the executive director of District Council 37, the city’s largest public-employee union, said in an interview last week, according to the WSJ.

Other groups that oppose the layoffs have said they would not be necessary if the city initiated retirement for some city workers or shifted more health care costs to unionized city workers.