City of London sees 99% compliance with vaccination policy

City hall in London, Ont. is seen on Monday, Feb. 4, 2019. (Bryan Bicknell / CTV London)

London, Ont. -

The City of London has placed 43 municipal employees on unpaid leave for the month of November for not following the city's vaccine mandate.

The move comes after 19 full-time and 24 casual employees failed to provide proof of vaccination or medical exemption by the city's deadline of Nov. 1.

An internal city email says if they can be compliant in that time, the leave will be ended, but it's not clear what will happen after their leave if they remain unvaccinated.

"I want to thank everyone who ensured they submitted the information as required ahead of the deadline. I know that for some, this has been a difficult process...our hope was that 100% of employees would be in compliance at this time. We are very close to this, but unfortunatelly, that has not happened."

Ninety-nine per cent of the city's estimated 2,800 workers were in compliance.

City Manager Lynne Livingstone tells CTV News London in an email statement she's pleased with the high percentage of compliance.

“Our goal has been to help ensure the health and well-being of our staff and of the community by following all local and provincial health guidance. The health and well-being of our staff and of the community has been our priority throughout the COVID-19 pandemic; enacting this policy has been part of that."

She added that there won't be any impacts to service.

"Because the number of employees who will be placed on leave is a very small percentage of our staff, and because they are from various service areas across the organization, there will be no service impact to the public as a result of any disciplinary actions.”