The New York Post will not require its employees to be vaccinated in order to work from its offices, nor will it ask them to disclose their vaccination status, the company announced in an internal memo obtained by The Daily Beast.
The policy notably differs from the stricter policies in place at fellow Murdoch-owned outlet Fox News.
“At this time, we are continuing our practice of not requiring vaccination nor are we asking employees to identify themselves as having been vaccinated or not,” the newspaper’s management wrote in a lengthy memo sent to all staffers on Friday, emphasizing “a balance of personal choice and privacy while keeping a safe work environment.” Vaccinated Post staffers, meanwhile, will not be expected to wear a mask or produce test results.
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The Post will require unvaccinated employees who come to the office to wear a mask inside the premises, except when seated, and take a weekly COVID-19 test. But the company has no knowledge of who may or may not be vaccinated, as it will not require any disclosure. Instead, the paper wrote, “We are using the honor system as we trust our employees will comply.”
Earlier this month, the Biden administration announced new rules mandating private businesses with more than 100 employees to require staffers to either be vaccinated or produce weekly negative COVID-19 tests. The Post, which has more than 100 people on staff, does technically comply with such rules, even though the paper has no way of knowing who needs to produce negative test results.
The Post’s policy stands in contrast to that of Fox News, a fellow Murdoch-owned outlet housed in the same Midtown Manhattan headquarters. (The paper falls under Murdoch’s News Corp and the cable channel is owned by Fox Corp.)
Unlike the tabloid newspaper, Fox News—under its parent company’s rules—now requires all employees to log their vaccination status into a company-wide database. Furthermore, as Fox Corp HR exec Kevin Lord boasted earlier this month, the media giant will go beyond the Biden administration guideline and require daily COVID-19 testing for all employees who are unvaccinated or failed to disclose their status.
The New York Post did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.
