NYC City Workers Will Return To Offices May 3, De Blasio Says

NEW YORK CITY — Tens of thousands of New York City public workers are poised to return to their offices for the first time in a year.

"The folks who work in offices will begin to return on May 3,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday.

De Blasio's announcement that remote work will end for municipal office workers could foreshadow a wider reopening from the coronavirus pandemic.

About 500,000 Manhattan office workers are expected to return to their workplaces by the fall — a considerable number by any measure but still about half of pre-pandemic levels.

The return of roughly 80,000 municipal office workers — a number first reported by the New York Times — will be a major step in the city's recovery, de Blasio said.

He said some private companies could wait until September's school reopening to bring workers back. But others could look at the city's decision to put the issue on the "front burner" and look for an earlier return, he said.

"May 3 is going to be an important step along the way,” he said.

About 80 percent of city workers are already at their frontline work sites, de Blasio said. He said the city's office workers are the group that will "overwhelmingly" return in May.

The city will bring back workers in staggered phases, with an emphasis on health and safety, said Laura Anglin, the city's deputy mayor for operations.

"The approach will be focused on distancing, on ventilation, on all the tools that keep people safe,” de Blasio said.