Mayor Bloomberg Urges City Employees To Get Back To Work, Despite Sandy

New York City schools will remain closed Tuesday and Wednesday and public transport will be suspended for at least the rest of the work week, as the city begins cleaning up from Hurricane Sandy, the most damaging natural disaster to hit the city in over a century. But New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg asked all city employees to report to work anyway, reports New York's Daily News, and said school principals and administrators would forfeit vacation days if they didn't. The president of the New York principals' union said the decision was "unconscionable" and "put adults at risk."

"City workers are here to help others. I think they understand that," Bloomberg said Monday. "City government is open and these are the times when New Yorkers need us most." Those on duty include sanitation workers, emergency room staffers and park employees. In a press conference Tuesday morning, Bloomberg reiterated to city workers that they had an obligation to help others. "If your office is open, and if you can safely-- and I repeat, safely -- get to work, please do so," he said. And if their offices aren't open, he added, city employees should try to get to a shelter to volunteer their services.