A top consulting firm just announced one of the strictest vaccine mandates yet: Get vaccinated or don’t get paid.

• Consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal is placing unvaccinated employees on unpaid leave starting Oct. 31.
• The vaccine mandate excludes pregnant women, but religious or medical exemptions aren’t guaranteed.
• The firm is planning for a full return to the office on September 7.

Top consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) just drew a line in the sand for its employees: get vaccinated or take unpaid leave.

On Monday, the firm announced internally a new policy requiring vaccinated employees to provide proof of vaccination before the firm’s full return to the office on Sept. 7th, according to a Tuesday press release.

Unvaccinated employees can continue to work remotely, but must inform their division or corporate function head of their vaccination plans. Beginning October 31, unvaccinated employees will be placed on an unpaid leave of absence, which could last up to six months.

Pregnant women are exempt from the vaccine mandate, the firm told employees. Exceptions for medical or religious believes will be considered, but may not be granted.

The firm will continue to provide any unvaccinated employees with full health benefits during their unpaid leave and will reinstate them immediately after they are vaccinated.

Vaccinated A&M employees, meanwhile, must provide proof of vaccination via uploading copies of their vaccine cards into the HR portal Workday.

According to a recent internal survey of US employees at A&M, 92% were fully vaccinated or planned to be by Sept. 1, while 8% said they would not be vaccinated or chose not to respond.

“The most recent CDC data shows that 194 million Americans have been vaccinated and only 7,100 of vaccinated Americans have been hospitalized. In other words, one out of every 27,700 vaccinated Americans have been hospitalized,” the company said in Tuesday’s release. “These facts make it clear that vaccinations are extremely effective.”

Alvarez & Marsal’s new vaccine policy is one of the strictest in the business world right now. Many Wall Street firms have stopped short of requiring vaccines or proof of vaccination, while others have reintroduced mask mandates or pushed back office-return plans due to the threat of the Delta variant.

Morgan Stanley, which has no concrete return-to-office plans, told vaccinated US staff on Tuesday to upload documentation to an online portal, according to an internal memo viewed by Insider. Bloomberg was first to report on Morgan Stanley’s memo on Tuesday.

Representatives for Alvarez & Marsal did not immediately respond to a request for comment.