Bill supports state employees fired over vaccine mandate
As the COVID-19 pandemic progressed, state employees who were unwilling to get vaccinated against the disease lost their jobs. A bill working its way through the Washington Legislature seeks to prioritize rehiring them.
COURTESY PHOTO/RF STUDIO
OLYMPIA – House Bill 1814, if passed, would prioritize reemployment and pension service credit of public employees separated from service due to the COVID-19 vaccination mandate.
"The decision to get vaccinated or not get vaccinated has and always should be up to the people. While the governor has not yet lifted the vaccine mandate for state workers, the least the Legislature can do is make getting those jobs back easier for those who unnecessarily lost their jobs and their livelihoods," said Rep. Chris Corry (R-Yakima), a primary sponsor of the bill.
A release by Corry’s office stated that HB 1814 would provide a 10% hiring preference for workers who lost their jobs, either voluntarily or involuntarily due to the vaccine mandates, and restore pension service credit for the time they were unemployed.
"I have been clear on this since the beginning – the vaccine mandate for state employees was an overreach," Corry wrote in the release. "The loss of nearly 1,900 state workers over the vaccine mandate hurt families and damaged the state, causing major disruptions to ferry service and exacerbating the staffing shortage at the Washington State Patrol."