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Scores of workers who got fired for refusing to comply with the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates are eager to sue Mayor Eric Adams over his decision to exempt local pro athletes and performers, lawyers said Thursday.
“This morning alone we have received over 100 different calls asking for our help,” Staten Island lawyer Louis Gelormino told The Post.
Long Island lawyer James Mermigis also said, “I already got five calls this morning from private-sector employees that were let go because of the mandate and they want to sue the city.”
“I’m going to have them in my office over the weekend,” he said.
Mermigis, who’s been dubbed “the anti-shutdown lawyer” for filing pandemic-related suits, already represents 41 NYPD cops who are appealing denials of their requests to be exempted from the city’s vaccine mandate on religious grounds.
They plan to sue if those decisions go against them, he said.
Mermigis called Adams’ announcement Thursday “another slap in the face to regular New Yorkers who just want to earn a living.”
“We are going to allow the $50-million-per-year-salary athletes play on their sports team, but what does the city need more: a healthy Yankee team or a healthy police department?” he said.
“Look at the crime that’s going on in the city. This is absolutely ridiculous and backwards.”
Gelormino also called Adams’ move “shameful” and said the city’s vaccine mandates were unconstitutional.
He said the challenges to Thursday’s executive order could come in the form of complaints to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces federal laws prohibiting job discrimination.
“My partner, Mark Fonte, and I will aggressively be pursuing any legal action available in order to best represent our clients,” he said.
“We are in the process of deciding what’s the best avenue.”
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