Unvaccinated people to be blocked from entering NY bank’s offices

Rules will also apply to visitors, as chief executives call for return to office

Morgan Stanley (REUTERS)

Morgan Stanley is banning staff who are unvaccinated from working at the bank’s New York City office, according to a report.

Staff were informed recently that from 12 July, everyone working from Morgan Stanley’s offices in New York City and in Westchester “will be required to attest to being fully vaccinated“ to access the offices.

As first reported by the Financial Times, staff who are unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated from Covid are asked to continue working from home.

Mandell Crawley, the bank’s chief human resources officer, said in the memo that the rules also applied to Morgan Stanley’s “contingent workforce, clients and visitors“.

It was reported that an “overwhelming majority of staff” at Morgan Stanley have already been vaccinated, with “vaccine-only” areas of its offices introduced.

Staff were reportedly told that it would remove remaining restrictions including social distancing and face coverings, from 12 July, following the introduction of the access rules.

It follows calls from Morgan Stanley, and other firms in the city, for staff to return to offices following the rolling out of vaccines for Covid.

As reported by the New York Post, the bank’s chief executive, James Gorman, told an annual conference that “If you can go into a restaurant in New York City, you can come into the office.”

“Make no mistake about it. We do our work inside Morgan Stanley offices, and that’s where we teach, that’s where our interns learn, that’s how we develop people,” Mr Gorman added.

Staff at Goldman Sachs were also recently informed of a return for work, the Post reported.

Nearly 320 million Americans have revived a single dose of a Covid vaccine, and 150 million are fully vaccinated from the virus.