Radio Report: Jacobsen bill would allow rehire of forced-out non-vaccinated state workers

January 15, 2023

State workers who were forced to quit because of vaccine mandates could get their jobs back under a bill filed in the state House of Representatives. John Sattgast reports from the state Capitol.

SATTGAST: Nearly 19-hundred Washington state workers were fired, resigned, or retired in October 2021 due to Governor Jay Inslee's COVID-19 vaccination mandate. Republican Representative Cyndy Jacobsen of Puyallup has introduced legislation to reemploy non-vaccinated workers who were forced from their jobs.

JACOBSEN: “Let's encourage localities and encourage private sector businesses to hire back those people if they want their jobs. Let's mandate that the state create a pathway if these people want back their jobs and if their jobs are not available, maybe pop them into something different. Let's just extend an olive branch and get moving beyond all this vaccine mandate stuff.”

SATTGAST: House Bill 1029 seeks to create a pathway for those employees to be re-employed in their former positions if they so choose. The measure has been referred to the House Labor and Workplace Standards Committee.

John Sattgast, the state Capitol