June 23, 2021 3 min read

This story originally appeared on ValueWalk

Wall Street’s Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) has announced a ban at its New York offices on both clients and staff who have not been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The determination will come into effect in July and means that unvaccinated workers currently working remotely, will continue doing so.

Q1 2021 hedge fund letters, conferences and more

Ban on Unvaccinated Clients and Staff

Excerpts of an internal memo signed by chief human resources officer Mandell Crawley were published by the BBC, maintaining: “Starting July 12 all employees, contingent workforce, clients and visitors will be required to attest to being fully vaccinated to access Morgan Stanley buildings in New York City and Westchester.”

In the same document, Crawley asserted that, after that date, every staff member unable to demonstrate full inoculation would not be able to enter the office, not without underlining that “the overwhelming majority of staff” had already attested to getting their jabs.

The purpose of such policy is to lift restrictions on face masks and social distancing at the bank’s premises, as last December, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission allowed companies to bar unvaccinated employees from workplaces, barring religious and medical reasons.

According to the Financial Times, Morgan Stanley’s vaccination policy is the strictest yet among large Wall Street banks, as it is most preoccupied with having its staff members back in the office the soonest.

Not Fans of Remote Work

Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman emphasized that workers should return to the office and stop working remotely. Barely a week ago, he was quoted as saying, “If you can go to restaurants, you can come to the office,” and said that he would be very disappointed if staff were not to return as early as September.

Morgan Stanley is not the only firm with an urge to squash working remotely work. Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) completed the process of returning to its Wall Street offices, after offering its staff the chance to rejoin voluntarily.

However, just a fraction of its workforce chose to return to the corporate headquarters, so the bank ended up demanding the return of those who had not followed suit, with CEO David Solomon telling Forbes that telecommuting is, “an aberration that we are going to correct as soon as possible.”

In contrast, Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) has not yet taken the step and continues to offer some flexibility to its employees. Its new director, Jane Fraser, pointed out that the reintegration process would be delayed until vaccination is more advanced and families can better organize the care of their children.