​Originally Posted 11/8/2021 on previous WPEA Website
 
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has released an Emergency Temporary Standard requiring employers with 100 or more employees to adopt COVID vaccination policies by January 4, 2022. Covered employers must require that employees be vaccinated or be tested weekly for COVID.
This rule will affect WPEA members at the Fort Vancouver Regional Library and the Kitsap Regional Library. All other WPEA members are already covered by existing mandates.
 
Here are the details:

• Employers w/ 100 or more employees must develop, implement, and enforce a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy. This policy must be in place by January 4, 2022.
• An employer’s policy may allow employees to remain unvaccinated if they get tested weekly and wear a mask at work. This exception is not available to healthcare workers.
• Workers must get paid time off to get vaccinated (up to 4 hours), and can use sick leave (a “reasonable” amount) to recover from any side effects.

Any policy enacted by employers will be a change in working conditions and therefore subject to impact bargaining between the employer and WPEA.

Originally Posted 10/18/2021 on previous WPEA Website
A Thurston County judge has issued a ruling Monday that will allow Governor Inslee’s vaccine mandate to stay in place. Judge Carol Murphy denied plaintiffs’ request for an injunction staying Inslee’s proclamation 21-14 (the vaccine mandate for state employees, educators, & health care workers). Judge Murphy’s ruling was not on the merits of the case, but merely means that the mandate stays in effect while the case is being heard.