Agencies report employee response to state vaccine mandate

Governor Jay Inslee’s vaccine mandate that required all state employees, educators, and most healthcare workers to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 went into effect on October 18. Under the proclamation, those who are not vaccinated and did not receive approval for a medical or religious exemption were fired last Monday if they did not resign or retire.

The statewide mandate is estimated to cover 800,000 workers including educators, healthcare workers and state workers. According to data released by the Office of Financial Management, the mandate covers about 61,000 state workers.

Locally, the governor’s actions apply to school district employees, PeaceHealth caregivers, state troopers, firefighters and other state agency workers. The mandate does not apply to city or county workers.

Across Washington, many state departments saw mass separations with more than 1,800 state employees leaving their jobs due to the Covid-19 vaccine requirements, either by separation, resignation or retirement.

Washington State Patrol (WSP) saw 127 individuals leave the line of duty, according to an October 19 press release. Of the 2,200 personnel at WSP, 67 troopers, six sergeants, one captain and 53 civil servants left the agency. Chief John R. Batiste said in the release he’s thankful for the more than 2,000 individuals who stayed and said they will not have to do more with less.

“We shall do our very best to keep our remaining staff from becoming overburdened by these temporary losses,” Batiste said.

Whatcom County, which is in WSP’s district 7 along with Skagit, Snohomish, San Juan and Island counties, lost 10 WSP commissioned personnel. The most any one district lost was 14, and that was in the southwest counties.

The Department of Corrections and Department of Transportation had over 400 separations in their 8,300 and 6,800-person departments as of October 19, according to the data.

The majority of state departments have over 90 percent vaccination rates: only the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) and Employment Security Department (ESD) were below 90 percent. ESD had 330 employees receive accommodations and 10 separations in its almost 3,000-person department as of October 25. On the other hand, DVA had 70 separations and 0 accommodations in its 869-person agency.

With the mandates going into effect, The Northern Light reached out to local organizations to inquire about their staff vaccination rates. The Blaine school district, PeaceHealth caregivers and North Whatcom Fire and Rescue are required to follow the mandates. The rest are not.

Below are their responses.

Blaine school district

Total  # of employees: ~385

# fully vaccinated: 91 percent (~350)

# exempted: 9 percent (~35)

# not fully vaccinated: 9 percent (~35)

PeaceHealth Whatcom County

Total  # of employees: 3,290

# fully vaccinated: 3148 (97 percent)

# exempted: 115

# not fully vaccinated: 27

Point Roberts Water District

Total  # of employees: 3

# fully vaccinated: 2 (66 percent)

# not fully vaccinated: 1 (leaving this month; replacement vaccinated)

Point Roberts Fire District

Total number of employees: 46

# fully vaccinated: 43

# exempted: 0

# not fully vaccinated: 3 (on leave, not functioning)

City of Blaine

Total  # of employees: 60

# fully vaccinated: 52 (87 percent)

# exempted: N/A

# not fully vaccinated: 8

At the time of publication, the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office had not tabulated employee vaccination rates.