COVID vaccine mandate begins for California state workers despite objections from SEIU Local 1000

The Newsom administration is proceeding with plans to require state workers to present proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or else submit to regular weekly testing over the objections of its largest public employee union.

The state is rolling out the requirement this week at four departments: The California Highway Patrol, the California Department of Transportation, the California Department of Motor Vehicles and Cal Fire, according to a memo from the state Department of Human Resources.

The plan is to create a “playbook” for other agencies using those four departments as a model, according to an email sent Tuesday by Eraina Ortega, director of the California Department of Human Resources. Her office alongside the Department of Public Health is overseeing the new rule.

Ortega wrote that “to the extent possible, testing contracts and expenses will be centralized to save costs as well as promote administrative efficiency.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the requirement for the state’s 240,000 public employees last week. It also applies to private-sector health care workers.

Several unions, including the California Correctional Peace Officers Association and the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association, released statements supporting Newsom’s order.

One, the state’s largest union, is fighting the mandate.

SEIU Local 1000 filed an unfair labor practice charge against CalHR this week with the Public Employment Relations Board, alleging that Newsom’s administration failed to meet and confer with the union prior to implementing the new rule.

“We’re still protesting the fact that they’re violating our contract,” said Richard Louis Brown, the president. “That’s what the State of California is doing, and that is what the State of California has done under the leadership of this governor.”

The unfair labor practice charge states that CalHR “dodged its legal obligations by unilaterally imposing a deadline.”

“The directives are not being handled at the state labor relations level, and no guidance or control measures have been provided to department labor relations or personnel officers or the unions. Instead, apparently, the State is blithely relying on an untrained cadre of worksite level supervisors and managers to wander the worksite floors asking employees to prove up their vaccination status — i.e. to vax up or mask up — starting on Monday, August 2, 2021,” the charge reads in part.

The charge alleges that the state is pushing a “one-size fits all” approach that fails to take into account that a sizable percentage of state workers are telecommuting to work.

Ortega’s message this week said several state departments already have COVID-19 testing protocol because their employees work in facilities were the virus is known to spread easily, such as prisons and nursing homes.

Amy Palmer, acting spokeswoman for CalHR, said in a statement that the department’s position is that expedited relief from the Public Employment Relations Board is not needed because the state is prepared to meet and confer immediately over any negotiable effects of the policy decision at issue.

This story was originally published August 4, 2021 at 2:38 PM with the headline "COVID vaccine mandate begins for California state workers despite objections from SEIU Local 1000."