ST PAUL, Minn. — Republican senators are unhappy to hear that state workers face time off without pay, and possibly termination for failure to comply with a new vaccine mandate for those who can't do their jobs from home.
They made that abundantly clear Thursday during a joint hearing of the Health and Human Services Committee and the State Government Committee, peppering state budget department employees with questions about how the mandate is being enforced.
Currently 74 state employees are on leave without pay because they wouldn't agree to be tested at work or show proof of vaccination. In that group, 56 work for the Dept. of Human Services, 14 for the Dept. of Corrections, and four are with MnDOT.
"Your points about high rates are certainly valid and concerns about that, but just because there’s a high rate of a disease doesn’t mean we should mistreat our employees or treat them unfairly," Sen. Jim Abeler, the Anoka Republican who chairs the HHS Committee, remarked during a back-and-forth conversation with Minnesota Management and Budget Deputy Commissioner Kristin Baston.
"We should pay these people their back pay if they’re willing to comply, and we should get them into a righteous status and give them free tests."
There are currently 36,000 state employees. The mandate currently applies to roughly 25,000 who must report to an office or job site to work. Of that affected group, at least 77 percent have shown proof of vaccination and aren't required to be tested.
Those who won't show proof of vaccination are required to be tested for COVID weekly at state expense. They must sign a testing consent form in order to get those tests through their jobs.
Those who refuse to sign that testing consent form go through a due process hearing to make their case. If they lose at that stage they're placed on "no-pay" status -- which means they continue to draw employer-paid benefits but no salary and now withholding.
"Employees who continue to refuse employer testing are able to test on their own and present negative test results, and return to work," Commissioner Batson explained.
"We are using a progressive discipline process and that is negotiated with our labor unions at the time of collective bargaining."
She said the road to termination established in those union contracts can run from four to six weeks.
Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer of Big Lake, who chairs the State Government Operations Committee, asked Batson if the progressive discipline process has ever been used before for circumstances that involve personal medical decisions of employees.
Sen. Kiffmeyer asserted that it's inconsistent that unvaccinated state employees have to be tested for COVID on a weekly basis while vaccinated workers don't have to be tested. She cited national stories of vaccinated workers with asymptomatic breakthrough cases who carry the virus.
MMJ Commissioner Jim Schowalter said the Walz Administration is doing its best to follow the guidelines for keeping employees healthy and protecting the members of the public they serve. He cited advisories from the CDC and OSHA, which say unvaccinated people are most likely to catch COVID and spread it to others.
Currently vaccinated state workers who get a positive breakthrough case can get up to 56 hours of paid leave if they’ve run out of accrued sick leave. Abeler and the other Republicans said they thought unvaccinated workers should get the same extra benefit.
Kiffmeyer and fellow Republicans also told Batson they believe state workers who've obtained natural immunity by catching the virus should be exempt from testing and the vaccine mandate. Many experts agree those who've recovered from one variant of COVID have immunity from that variant, but they caution it won't necessarily protect people from other variants of the virus.
Melissa Schultz, who's been working at MnDOT for 14 years as a bridge architectural specialist, told the committee she should be exempted from the vaccine-or-test rule because of the immunity she developed by having COVID last year.
"I’ve had no re-infection and almost a year later I still maintain high antibody levels because I got it tested just for fun to see," Schultz told lawmakers.
"I’m probably the safest individual in my office but I’m the most discriminated against because of the state’s messaging and policies."
Schultz said some of her colleagues have said they're suffering from nightmares and post traumatic stress disorder because they're so fearful of the vaccine. She said they confided in her because they know that she doesn't trust vaccines.