JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said any New York City-based staffer who refuses to get the COVID-19 vaccine is now at risk of getting fired as Wall Street tightens a clampdown in the face of the Omicron variant. Dimon announced the new policy on Monday — just days after another investment banking giant, Citigroup, set a Friday deadline for all of its US-based employees to get inoculated. “If you aren’t going to get vaxxed, you won’t be able to work in that office. We’re not going to pay you not to work in the office,” Dimon told Reuters. “We want people to get vaccinated.” The new policy represents a harder line at JPMorgan Chase, the largest asset-holding bank in the country, which last month had told its Manhattan-based staffers that they could work from home if they declined to get vaccinated. Previously, those who were unvaccinated and chose to work from the office could do so if they submitted to regular testing. Last month, JPMorgan had told unvaccinated employees they could work from home temporarily until “alternative solutions are considered,” according to Bloomberg. When asked this week whether JPMorgan Chase would adopt a hybrid work policy allowing employees to split their time between home and the office, Dimon said: “We don’t have to answer this right away.” The bank operates nine office locations in Manhattan, including its headquarters at 383 Madison Avenue. Those locations relaxed mask guidelines for employees. Dimon told CNBC on Monday that as of this week 97% of JPMorgan Chase workers at its New York headquarters had been vaccinated. He added that the company’s COVID vaccine policies varied depending on the location of its offices. “Unlike any other policy we’ve ever had, we’re not trying to be consistent,” said Dimon. “There are different laws and different requirements in cities and states and schools, and so here we’re adjusting locally … As buildings get to 95 percent and 97 percent vaxxed in certain states, that may end up with a different policy than a different state.” Last week, Citigroup informed employees they will be fired if they do not comply with a companywide vaccine requirement by Friday. The bank reminded workers in a memo this past Friday that they must submit proof of vaccination by the end of this week. But the memo warned that staffers who ignore the requirement will be placed on unpaid leave and terminated on Jan. 31.
