OLYMPIA, WA – The state legal deadline for state employees to be fully vaccinated is October 18th, less than two weeks away. This means all state employees had to have had their second dose of the vaccine or the single dose of Johnson and Johnson by October 4th. Evidently, for Washington State Patrol, October 4th was the day that their employees needed to start reporting their vaccination status.
“October 4th was the last day for them to receive their vaccine. October 5th they needed to report that to us. But the deadline to let us know their vaccination status is October 18th like the rest of the state.” says WSP’s Communications Director, Chris Loftis.
As of right now, 93% of WSP employees are fully vaccinated, with half of them being troopers and the other half being civil servants, meaning they work in the labs or offices.
Of the roughly 2,200 WSP employees, 152 of them are not vaccinated or have not submitted their vaccination status. This includes 91 troopers or commanders and 61 civil servants.
“Some people may have convictions against getting vaccinated. However, we are a law enforcement agency and we took an oath to follow legal directions.” said Loftis.
WSP is working with union representatives in order to give fair and clear notices to employees about the steps to take if they do not comply with the vaccine mandate. Letters of Separation will be sent October 11th to those who have still not submitted their vaccination status. They will have until October 18th, the legal deadline, to submit their status if they have been fully vaccinated or not. If they do not do so, and are not vaccinated, they will then be separated from employment October 19th.
Chris Loftis remains hopeful that the rest of the employees will turn in their vaccination report, if not most of them, hoping they won’t have to be terminated.
“We’ve been honored by their employment in the past, but we must move forward administratively.” said Chris Loftis, “We will miss them but this is a situation with consequence and we will handle it with as much grace and respect as we can.”
This comes at a time when, since 2014, WSP troopers have been short by about 80-90 troopers.
“We of course don’t want to lose anymore so we are remaining hopeful that our employees with comply with this legal direction.” said Loftis.
