Hennepin County says 22 employees have not met deadline to get COVID-19 vaccine

Hennepin County has 22 employees who have failed to prove they received a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination.

Employees had until 5 p.m. Friday to show proof of vaccination or that they were given an exemption.

A disciplinary process will start Monday for staffers who fail to prove they are vaccinated. That could range from everything up to termination, said County Administrator David Hough.

Hennepin County has 9,000 employees, so the remaining unvaccinated population make up a tiny fraction of the county's workforce.

Last week, Hough said just over 100 employees weren't vaccinated. He had hoped that number would drop to nearly zero by the deadline. Hough took time Friday to get his own COVID-19 booster shot.

"We are the public health authority for most of the county," he said. "I know this is a charged issue. But in the end, the mandate is about saving lives and protecting people. We hope people will do the right thing."

In November, the County Board voted to require employees to get vaccinated. The county had set up clinics and helped advise any employees who had questions or concerns about the vaccine, said Hough.

Unvaccinated employees were given repeated warnings about failure to get a vaccine. Nearly 500 employees have received a religious or medical vaccine exemption.

Ali Fuhrman, president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 2822, which represents thousands of county workers, said she was delighted to see the number of employees drop to 22.

She had previously estimated that more than 200 employees were facing termination for noncompliance with the vaccine mandate.

In a meeting with the county, she said employees who still had exemption or vaccine verification questions would be placed on unpaid leave until the issue is clarified. They would be allowed to used paid time off or sick leave.

"We've done so much to push the numbers down," she said. "But our goal is no termination. And we will fight any such discipline."

Discipline investigations will start Monday. They will include interviews with employees and will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, said Hough.

Union employees will have due process rights under the collective bargaining agreement, and non-union employees are protected under county and state protections. Hough said he didn't know how long the process would take.

"We have been working across the organization — with human resources, labor relations and the County Attorney's Office — to make sure any discipline action is done in a fair way," he said.

Fuhrman said her union is pro-COVID-19 safety, yet it doesn't make sense to fire employees over the vaccination issue. People can still come into government buildings who are unvaccinated or unmasked, she said.

Hough declined to respond to her comments, saying, "We have to do what we do, and they have to do what they do."