SEPTEMBER 17, 2021, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A3
Days after union files complaint, county grants
two weeks leave for employees with COVID
By JOEY CAPPELLETTI
Of the KEIZERTIMES
At a Sept. 7 meeting, the Marion
County Board of Commissioners voted to
approve up to two weeks of paid leave for
county employees required to isolate or
quarantine due to COVID.
Prior to the order, employees have
been required since Jan 1, 2021 to use
their own accrued time in the event they
became sick with COVID according to
Trish Straw, who works in the county
health department.
Time that many didn’t have, Straw
said.
“We had school closures, we had
COVID. A lot of people exhausted all of
their protected time, family leave and all
of their accrued leaves; sick time, vaca-
tion comp time, personal leave. They
don’t have any time,” said Straw, who is
also the president of the Marion County
employee union.
In the event that someone did become
sick with no accrued time remaining, the
consequences could be severe.
“People are getting sick and they're
having to take leave without pay. They
got sick and the county was encouraging
a medical termination or separation, just
adding of course to the staffing crisis,”
said Straw, who is also the president of
the Marion County employee union.
Straw said employees felt devalued,
and were even told “if they don't like the
Photo courtesy Marion County
way things are at the county, go find a
new job.”
The county commissioners’ order
at the Wednesday, Sept. 7 meeting now
gives two weeks of leave time to all
Marion County employees who have
received written direction from the local
public health authority administrator to
isolate or quarantine.
The order will also retroactively reim-
burse employees back to July 1 that had
previously used their own accrued time
to isolate or quarantine due to COVID. It
requires, however, that the written direc-
tion to quarantine came from the county.
Straw said most people won’t qualify for
back pay because of this provision.
“The county was sending employees
to their doctors for quarantine, not the
county. So for them to say, ‘Oh, if you had
a note from epidemiology of infectious
control, then we're going to go ahead and
pay you.’ Well, they weren't even directing
them to infectious control,” Straw said.
Straw said the union, which rep-
resents 1,000 Marion County employees,
has been trying for months to get the
county to approve a two-week paid leave.
The board of commissioners' decision
on Sept. 7 came only five days after the
union had filed an unfair labor practice
complaint against the county.
Marion County spokesman Chad Ball,
who replied in place of Commissioner
Danielle Bethell, said the order was not
made in response to the union’s com-
plaint and was made before the union’s
complaint was even filed.
Ball said the board wanted to ensure
“each employee felt safe, both emotion-
ally and financially.”
Straw said the county’s retroactive
order doesn’t go far enough to address
union concerns.
The union’s complaint, which was
filed to the state’s Employment Relations
Board on Sept. 3, says that on June 10,
2021, the county announced that all
employees would be required to return to
work in-person no later than July 19.
The county’s announcement, accord-
ing to both Straw and the complaint,
came without notice or discussion
with the union — which the union says
goes against a collective bargaining
agreement.
“What we're saying is there needs to be
policies and procedures in place for the
safety and health of everyone that works
for the county,” Straw said. “We cannot
serve the public if we're sick. We cannot
serve the public if everyone's stressed
out. We can’t serve the public if we're sick
and taking it home to our families.”
The union filed a demand to bargain
and subsequently had two meetings with
the county in August, which the county
referred to as “listening sessions.”
The complaint says that a county
spokesperson emailed the Union on
Aug. 13 “to thank representatives for
their recent participation ‘in the listen-
ing sessions’ with management, but
announced that the County was rejecting
all of the Union’s recent health and safety
proposals.”
The complaint is still open and Straw
said the union just wants to bargain with
the county so that policies and proce-
dures are in place going forward.
Ball said the county doesn’t comment
on open complaints.