CNN fires three employees who entered the office without being vaccinated.

CNN said on Thursday it fired three employees who violated its coronavirus safety protocols by going to the office unvaccinated, one of the earliest known examples of a major U.S. company being fired for ignoring a vaccination warrant on work place.

CNN had said this year that employees should be vaccinated against the virus in order to return to its US offices. The network relied on an honor system rather than requiring proof of vaccination status.

“During the past week, we learned of three employees who came to the office unvaccinated. All three were fired, ”CNN Chairman Jeff Zucker wrote in an internal memo the New York Times obtained on Thursday. “Be clear: we have a zero tolerance policy on this. “

Mr Zucker did not say where the employees worked, what positions they held, or how their immunization mandate violations were discovered. CNN declined to comment beyond its rating.

“We expect that in the coming weeks, proof of vaccination will become a formal part” of the network’s workplace access process, Zucker added.

Many large companies – including Facebook and Google – have said they will require employees to be vaccinated against the virus in order to return to the office. Some companies, including the Washington Post, have gone further by making vaccination a condition of subsequent employment.

But few companies have described exactly the kind of consequences that would result for employees who violate vaccine requirements.

In his memo on Thursday, Zucker announced that CNN had postponed its official September 7 return to office for U.S. employees. CNN has not set a new date, but Zucker said that in October “it seems reasonable at this point.” He wrote that “just over a third” of American employees in the CNN newsroom were once again working in the office on a regular basis.