Department of Correction Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi says thousands of his employees are not showing up for work each day.

He made those comments to NY1 during the parade for essential workers.

"While we had hundreds of heroes who came in every single day, we have 1,400 people on any day calling in sick and 5,000 people not coming to work and not calling, AWOLing," Schiraldi said. "Those people should be ashamed of themselves, and they need to get back to work and support the heroes that came in every day.”

Benny Boscio Jr., the president of the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association, released a statement in response, saying, "Schiraldi’s comments are disgraceful and an insult to our officers who are out sick because they are recovering from broken bones and stab wounds and physical exhaustion from working triple and quadruple shifts."