Durham taxpayers may have to pick up part of tab for testing unvaccinated city workers

Only 55 percent of municipal employees have said they are vaccinated against the virus, which is lower than Durham's overall 61 percent vaccination rate.

Those city workers who still haven't gotten their shots by Oct. 18 will be required to undergo weekly testing.

"We need to get our employees vaccinated, obviously, for the sake of the organization and the community broadly," City Councilwoman Javiera Caballero said Tuesday.

Durham officials want to hire CVS Health to perform about 1,000 tests a week at various city buildings, including City Hall, police headquarters and fire stations. Each test would cost $60, so the proposed $839,440 contract would cover testing through the end of December.

The money for the testing program would come from the city's Employee Health Insurance Fund, which officials said is paid into by employees and subsidized by taxpayers.

"[A] possible financial impact could be to employee's health premiums during the next fiscal year since the source of funding for the program will be the Insurance Fund," city officials wrote in a memo laying out the proposal.

It wasn't clear Tuesday whether premiums would increase for all city workers or just those needing the weekly tests. City officials weren't available to comment on the plan.

UE Local 150, which represents Durham city workers, said it supports weekly testing for unvaccinated workers as long as they are provided at no cost to the workers and are done on work, not personal, time. The union also said the city needs to provide extra sick leave for employees who test positive or have to quarantine because of possible exposure to the virus.

"The city has plenty of money from the federal government to do what they do," said Donald Quick, a maintenance assistant with the city and financial secretary of UE Local 150.

Quick said he doesn't think taxpayers should have to pick up some of the tab for testing, nor should he or any other vaccinated city worker.

"I got my shots and everything, but if a person doesn’t want to get shot – it could be their religion, it could be whatever it is – don’t try to put the burden on us by raising our insurance premiums," he said.

Raleigh and Wake County also are requiring unvaccinated employees to undergo routine virus tests. Raleigh officials said city workers will be responsible for any costs, pointing out there are many free testing options in Wake County.

Wake County spokeswoman Stacy Beard said the cost of the county's testing program depends on how many workers are involved – 75 percent of county workers are vaccinated, she said – but the county already uses federal pandemic relief funds to pay for several free local test sites.