The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
State workers get more time to comply
State delays suspending unvaccinated employees
State workers who failed to agree to COVID testing or vaccinations will have at least a couple more days on the job before they risk unpaid suspensions.
And even after suspensions begin, Gov. Ned Lamont said Monday, it is extremely unlikely that any agencies, including the state police, would need assistance from the Connecticut National Guard to do their jobs. Lamont last week placed the Guard on standby in case it was needed.
Lamont cited employee computer problems on
Monday when he said he would delay any suspensions. But he admitted a desire to soft pedal the mandatory inoculation and testing programs for tens of thousands of state workers under the executive branch.
“Let’s see how it sorts out in another day or so,” Lamont told reporters.
On Friday, the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) asked for a 20-day grace period, which the governor rejected. “’We’ll start keeping you really safe in another 20 days’? That’s not the way I work,” he said. “I don’t think it’s necessary and I don’t think it’s the right thing to do. We’ve worked very closely with people, given them time, making sure they get their paperwork in place. The overwhelming number of them are vaccinated. Thank you Connecticut.”
Despite Lamont downplaying concerns about unvaccinated state workers, a coalition of state employee unions scheduled a news conference Tuesday about the impending crisis.
“Unsafe staffing levels that were already present prior to COVID-19 have since been aggravated by the Lamont Administration’s implementation of the vaccine and testing mandates. If not properly addressed, chronic understaffing will continue to threaten the health and safety of state workers and the people they serve,” the SEBAC announcement said.
It’s unclear whether any state employees are off the job as a result of the vaccination mandate.
Cases of COVID-19 continue to show a decline in Connecticut. On Monday, the state Department of Public Health reported a testing rate of 1.8 percent positivity since Friday, although hospitals saw their count of admitted patients with COVID-19 increase by four, bringing the total to 241. For the seven days going back to Sept. 28, there were 2,986 positive COVID tests out of 152,409, for a 1.95 positivity rate.
Under Lamont’s order, as of midnight Monday night, regular state executive branch employees in departments such as transportation and social services, had to document that they were vaccinated, or that they would agree to weekly testing. Similar orders were in effect for thousands more employees in the state court system, in the colleges and universities system and in the legislature.
The governor also downplayed anecdotal reports that the state police and Department of Correction are bastions of unvaccinated state workers.
“I don’t think it’s concentrated in any one or two,” Lamont said, adding that some employees who are noncompliant may think their managers already
know they are inoculated, or thought they had filed their information but did not.
“Some of those are inadvertent and we treat them with leniency,” Lamont said. “Some of those are defiant and just won’t do it, and they have got to go home.”
Lamont reported Monday night that more than 23,000 of the more than 30,000 executive branch employees — 76 percent — are fully vaccinated. More than 5,000 — about 17 percent — have agreed to
weekly testing and 2,200 are not compliant. This does not mean they had refused vaccinations and testing, although there may be some in that group who refused both, and they would eventually be suspended. Much of the problem was a delay in record keeping, Lamont said Monday.
“I think you’ll find there was a lot of user error,” Lamont said. “Some of these things are sort of complicated. You’ve got to get the right ID number in there and such. Look, it’s
not easy for everybody, especially those of us of a certain age.”
Separately, the Judicial Branch, with 3,729 employees, reported 95 percent compliance on the vaccination-or-testing order, with more employees expected to file forms electronically by the midnight Monday deadline. A breakdown of that group was not available. The Legislative Branch has several hundred employees, while the higher education system reported Monday that of the 10,724 faculty and staff, 8,346 have been vaccinated, about 77.8 percent, and 669 have agreed to weekly testing.
But the higher education system received only 9,015 total responses as of Monday night, meaning as many as 1,709 more higher education workers were in danger of missing the compliance deadline.
Lamont, in comments Monday in Stamford and East Hartford, oscillated between a tough stance on employees not complying — saying they had had enough time to be vaccinated — and a softer position on actual suspensions. He said he wanted to avoid suspending anyone trying to comply but who may have had trouble with the reporting system.
The governor last week warned the heads of state agencies to prepare for staff shortages. He also asked Maj. Gen. Francis Evon, the head of the Connecticut National Guard, to prepare for activation so soldiers can fill critical roles until replacement employees can be hired or the workers placed on leave come into compliance.
Also Monday, Lamont said the situation was stable with school bus drivers, many of whom are employees of private companies but are under similar orders. Fears of a widespread driver shortage due to noncompliance have not occurred, he said.