News Archive
UPDATE: Vaccine Mandate for State and County Employees
August 06, 2021
HGEA strongly supports COVID-19 vaccinations for the protection of our community and to beat this pandemic. However, we do not support the way in which Governor Ige rolled out his latest emergency proclamation that mandates vaccines for public workers without bargaining the impact of this mandate.
We are receiving many calls and emails from members in response to this emergency proclamation regarding new COVID-19 vaccination and testing requirements for state and county employees. Union leaders and counsel are meeting early next week to review the proclamation and discuss potential options. Hawaii’s six public-sector unions sent a letter to Gov. Ige yesterday to demand bargaining over the impact of mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations and testing.
HGEA and other public-sector unions reached out to the governor’s office on Monday, Aug. 2 to initiate discussions about the vaccine mandate, but our request was denied. We have not received any information about the new vaccination and testing requirements from any of the jurisdictions. This is a very fluid matter and we will continue to update you on any new information we receive regarding the Governor’s vaccination and testing mandate. In the meantime, if you wish to request an exemption from the vaccine, or have questions about your jurisdiction’s vaccination and testing requirements, please contact your HR office.
We will continue to keep you updated as we get more information.
Gov. Ige's Emergency Proclamation Related to COVID-19 Response