City Agencies Prepare for Workers' Return, But Safety Questions Remain

The City Council has proposed creating a task force to oversee the safe return of municipal workers who transitioned to working remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic, but some of them still have concerns.

As the city prepared to enter the second phase of reopening June 22, agencies were working to establish guidelines based on expertise from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the city Department of Health to determine when and how city employees could return to their work spaces, de Blasio administration officials testified at a virtual June 16 City Council hearing. Although many of the city’s 325,000 employees, such as Emergency Medical Technicians, Nurses and Police Officers, are essential workers, about two-thirds of the municipal workforce has been able to work from home.