State Workers Vote To Agree With Washington's Vaccine Order

OLYMPIA, WA — The Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE) has ratified an agreement with the state, consenting to Gov. Jay Inslee's vaccine mandate for state employees in exchange for several new benefits and protections.

The WFSE represents more than 45,000 employees of the state. More than 80 percent of those employees voted in favor of the agreement in what the union is calling "a victory for public health and due process."

“No one has worked harder to combat the COVID-19 pandemic than Washington’s state workers,” said WFSE President and Psychiatric Social Worker Mike Yestramski. “We understand that vaccination, masking and social distancing are necessary for ending this public health crisis. Now, we have an agreement that incentivizes vaccination and helps ensure a fair process for workers requesting a medical or religious exemption.”

The agreement withdraws a suit filed by WFSE in Thurston County late last month, which had claimed the governor's office failed to "bargain in good faith" before requiring the COVID-19 vaccine.

Inslee's vaccine order requires that all state employees be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18 or risk losing their positions. At the time of the mandate's announcement, the governor argued the move was necessary to combat the explosive growth of the delta variant of COVID-19.

"We have what is essentially what is a new virus at our throats," Inslee said. "A new virus that is twice as transmittable and is causing an explosion of this dread disease in the state of Washington."

Now that the state and the union have reached an agreement, most state employees will still need to be fully vaccinated that Oct. 18 deadline. In return, however, they be given an additional personal leave day for the 2022 calendar year.

Employees who don't want to vaccinate also have a little more leeway: those who wanted to retire at the end of the year and who did not want to be vaccinated can now use accrued leave or leave without pay until their retirement date. Employees who file for religious or medical exemptions to the vaccine mandate will also have their pay guaranteed if they have not received an exemption decision by the Oct. 18 deadline, and will not lose pay until the decision is made.

The union says these changes will help protect some employees who would have otherwise lost their jobs for missing deadlines, and gives a little extra flexibility to meet the vaccine requirement.

Washington state is requiring other groups — including teachers, health care workers, and firefighters — take the COVID-19 vaccine by mid-October as well, but the WFSE's lawsuit was the first major complaint filed against the state's mandates.