The nearly 50 former Massachusetts state workers who lost their jobs last year to Gov. Charlie Baker’s COVID-19 mandate should not expect guaranteed back pay if they accept the commonwealth’s recent offers of reinstated employment.
The limited pool of former Executive Department employees — out of about 1,000 individuals who were fired or voluntarily resigned over Baker’s requirement — face an Oct. 31 deadline to decide whether they want to reclaim their old positions, according to letters obtained by MassLive this week. That includes a janitor and driver’s license examiner previously employed by MassDOT, but the Baker administration confirmed several other state agencies are seeking to recruit former workers, too.
New information obtained by MassLive indicates that unvaccinated employees will be welcomed back with few perks. But, the commonwealth is now more willing to handle certain religious and medical exemption requests that previously led to a wave of departures, Baker told reporters Tuesday.
The state government, at least for now, does not intend to offer compensation to workers spanning the time of their departures to their reinstated employment, MassLive has learned.
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Several MassDOT employees from different regional offices, who could not talk on the record due to the sensitivity of the information, indicated to MassLive they understood back pay or retroactive pay is not included in offers of reinstatement. Another employee who had no definitive knowledge on the matter was skeptical the Baker administration would provide back pay or other perks to entice former MassDOT workers.
Spokespeople for MassDOT and Baker’s office did not respond to multiple MassLive requests for comment, and neither did several labor union heads representing MassDOT workers. Selina Johnson of MassDOT, who former workers were told to contact with questions as they navigated their offers of reinstatement, did not respond to MassLive inquiries.
The offers of reinstatement are “effective immediately” and unconditional, according to the letters, dated Oct. 18, from MassDOT Chief Human Resources Officer Matthew Knosp. The letters did not delve into HR parameters involving compensation, vacation time and promotions, among other matters.
“By accepting this offer you are not required to dismiss or release any claims, lawsuits, charges or proceedings you have brought against MassDOT,” Knosp wrote in the letters, which were also signed by Julian Tynes, a MassDOT assistant secretary and chief diversity officer.
“Your reinstated employment will be consistent with the terms and conditions as existed at the time your employment terminated, in that Executive Order 595 and related policies remain in effect and you maintain that you have a sincerely held religious belief,” Knosp continued in the letter. “You will be required to follow MassDOT and/or facility COVID-19 and reinstatement protocols, including the requirement to mask while in-person at a MassDOT workplace and to social distance, as feasible, while in-person at a MassDOT workplace.”
The evolution of COVID vaccine mandates is unfolding differently in New York.
A state judge there ruled earlier this week that sanitation workers who refused to comply with the immunization requirement and were fired should be given their jobs back and be provided with retroactive pay, The Washington Post reported.
New York State Supreme Court Justice Ralph Porzio, a Republican, called the city’s requirement “arbitrary and capricious” in his ruling, which the city is now appealing, according to the Post.
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By contrast in Massachusetts, Baker’s order has already withstood court challenges — and former workers are not being rehired and awarded back pay as a consequence of a legal process, pointed out Chuck Rodman, the founding partner of Boston and Newton-based Rodman Employment Law.
The rehiring at play in the Baker administration mirrors offers of reinstatement in the private sector, Rodman indicated, which are predicated on “releases” by employees that acknowledge: “I recognize I’m coming back, and I’m willing to give up claims that I may have had in order to have this opportunity.”
Still, Rodman expects former state workers will be concerned about the impact of lost service time and severed employment relations on their benefits packages.
“In public employment, I’m not aware of any particular statute or regulation which would require back pay,” Rodman told MassLive. “So if there is no law requiring it, it’s totally discretionary. I would imagine that some of this stuff could be collectively bargained, but it would take a lot of people affected to have a request and a process — and it’s got to affect enough people in a particular union to give enough importance that a union would want to dedicate an effort to it.”