King County Metro to fast-track rehiring workers fired over vaccine mandate

King County Metro will fast track the rehiring of any workers who were let go for not complying with the county’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, an agency spokesperson said, part of an agreement struck with the local chapter of the Amalgamated Transit Union.

The new process, which would require returning workers to drop their right to claims against the department, comes as Metro, along with virtually every transit agency, struggles to recruit drivers and mechanics. The lack of staff, along with the slow delivery of parts, led the agency to announce in May it would strike 20 low-rider routes from the schedule and reduce trips on 12 other routes in exchange for more predictable and reliable service.

A host of factors can explain the workforce shortage, including waves of retirements, the heightened cost of living and evolving technology that puts the agency in competition with other high-tech industries for mechanics. The mandate that county employees be vaccinated, which lasted from October, 2021 until February of this year, also contributed. Of the nearly 300 county employees let go for not complying with the mandate, which required employees complete the two-dose regimen from Pfizer or Moderna or the single shot from Johnson & Johnson, 103 were from Metro. That’s about 2.5% of the agency’s workforce.

Some workers quit or retired before being fired, said Cory Rigtrup, vice president of ATU Local 587.

Of those let go, 90 are eligible to return to work, said spokesperson Jeff Switzer, 50 of whom are operators and 17 are mechanics.

Under the agreement reached last week, former employees have 30 days to express interest in returning to work. If they release their right to a claim and meet the county’s training and licensing qualifications, they will be returned to their former position at the same pay grade and leave accrual benefits without needing to reapply.

As more businesses, including Amazon, demand workers return to the office and commute traffic increases, Metro is hopeful former workers will return, said Switzer. “It’s our intent to return eligible employees as quickly as possible,” he said.

Rigtrup said he expects somewhere in the range of 15% to 20% of fired workers to come back. Most have moved, retired or found work elsewhere, he said.

Rigtrup said there were a few sticking points in the negotiations. One was around wages and benefits. Another related to a guarantee that everyone who was fired over the mandate could return, even those who left “in a ball of fire” and that management might not be eager to see return.

The other was around claims against Metro. Rigtrup said around 250 people requested religious or medical exemptions to the mandate and he couldn’t think of any that had been granted. Some workers have sued the agency for religious discrimination. Under this agreement, any returning worker would have to drop current and future claims.

Washington, King County and Seattle all implemented vaccine mandates shortly after the shots’ introduction in 2021. King County and Seattle rescinded their mandates nearly three months earlier than the state.  

Metro’s rehiring policy is more permissive than the state’s. Despite calls from the Washington Federation of State Employees to restore seniority and leave accrual to fired employees, the state policy is that former workers must go through the application process the same way any other interested worker would, Jaime Smith, spokesperson for Gov. Jay Inslee, confirmed Tuesday.

The state is facing over a dozen lawsuits on behalf of at least 180 former employees alleging they were unjustly fired. Nineteen tort claims have been brought against King County Metro over vaccine-related firings, according to King County’s Office of Risk Management Services.

Metro’s general manager, Michelle Allison, said in an interview earlier this year that the agency hadheard from a number of operators and mechanics interested in returning. The separations were felt most acutely in areas already struggling with staffing.

“It definitely had an impact on vehicle maintenance,” she said. “It’s already hard to be fully staffed in that space.”

Getting at the underlying staffing issues goes beyond COVID vaccines, she said. A large part of solving the problem is making Metro a more desirable place to work, through pay, but also opportunities for career advancement.

Another piece is the changing technology of buses.

“The change in what it looks like to be a vehicle mechanic on a system that is transferring to electric is also real,” Allison said. “There’s a change in technology. We’re competing with aeronautics, we’re competing with car companies, we’re acting a lot more like a high-tech space than a traditional diesel mechanic. And that changes how people approach that open position, too.”

In addition to the talks about the vaccine mandate, ATU and Metro are negotiating over pay.The two sides have been bargaining for more than a year and are about to bring in a mediator, Rigtrup said. ATU is asking for local cost of living adjustments. Social Security benefits increased 8.7% this year due to inflation and a local cost of living adjustment could be higher.

Metro ridership has been slowly creeping up as more offices reopen. The system saw a particularly notable bump in April, corresponding with Amazon’s order that it’s more than 50,000 corporate workers return to the office.