Washington Vaccine Mandate: State Employees Reach Agreement

OLYMPIA, WA — A legal challenge to Gov. Jay Inslee's vaccine mandate for state employees appears to have ended, as the union representing more than 45,000 of those employees has announced a tentative agreement with Washington state.

The suit, filed by the Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE) in Thurston County late last month, 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."

However, WFSE leaders argued in their complaint that Inslee still needed to finish the bargaining process and do more to inform employees of the change. WFSE and the state met at the bargaining table last week and have now announced a tentative agreement.

Under the agreement:

• State employees will need to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18, as announced in Inslee's initial order.
  • To be considered fully vaccinated, a patient must have received two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and waited two weeks for full immunity to kick in.
• If an employee has had one dose but missed the deadline for full vaccination, they can leave without pay for up to 30 days to become fully vaccinated, and still retain their position.
• After the Oct. 18 deadline, state employees will be given an additional personal leave day for the 2022 calendar year.
• Employees who wish to retire at the end of the year and who do not want to be vaccinated can use accrued leave or leave without pay until their retirement date.
• If an employee has filed for a vaccine exception by Sept. 13 and still has not received an decision by Oct. 18, they will not lose pay until the exemption decision is announced.
  • Under the governor's mandate, exemptions are available for medical reasons or for "sincerely held" religious beliefs.

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, calling it a "victory for both public health and due process."

Other wins highlighted by the union include guarantees that only HR staff will see exemption requests, and that employer-required COVID-19 tests will be done on the employer’s time and at their expense.

The union's bargaining team unanimously endorsed the agreement, but it still needs to be ratified by union members. That vote is set to begin Tuesday.

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.