Suspended Massachusetts State Troopers continue push for reinstatement

By Sam Drysdale

BOSTON, DEC. 21, 2022…..After a full-day hearing in front of the American Arbitration Association, the state police union’s efforts to get seven troopers back on the force after they were suspended in connection with a COVID-19 vaccine mandate will have to hold out at least another month.

Union representatives appeared before the association Wednesday for a second day of hearings, after they began the process this fall. With still more witnesses to testify late in the day Wednesday, the hearing will likely resume in mid to late January, State Police Association of Massachusetts spokesman Cam Goggins said.

The troopers were suspended without pay under a mandate Gov. Charlie Baker signed in August 2021 requiring executive office employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, or have an approved medical or religious exemption.

“Any day of delay is an injustice as it’s one more day these members are out of work … but we remain confident,” said the SPAM spokesperson, discussing the hearing being extended into the new year.

According to the State Police Association of Massachusetts Troopers, or SPAM, the seven members who are getting by without pay or benefits had approved religious exemptions. The union is calling for the troopers to return to their jobs, especially as some other executive branch employees who lost their jobs under the mandate have gone back to work.

“[The troopers] were found to have sincerely held religious beliefs and approved an exemption, but denied an accommodation to work,” said association President Patrick McNamara at a press conference before the hearing on Wednesday morning. “Today we’re here not as anti-vax, we’re here as pro-labor, fighting for rights of our members and our workforce.”

Legal counsel for the state police union, Leah Barrault of Barrault and Associates LLC, said the state made accommodations for employees with medical exemptions, but not for religious exemptions.

“We think the evidence in this case is strong, that it shows and continues to show that the interactive process that the state engaged in with employees with respect to the vaccine was not handled in a sincere or legal way — that there was a decision made early on to basically reject everyone who had a religious belief and move on to terminating them, again, without giving them their rights,” Barrault said.

SPAM began the fight against Baker’s mandate last year after the vaccine requirement took effect in October, alleging that the governor violated the troopers’ collective bargaining rights. The Department of Labor Relations dismissed the union’s complaint in December, but the troopers appealed to the Commonwealth Employee Relations Board. SPAM lost the appeal in February when the board upheld the department’s dismissal.

The union has gone back and forth with the state for months over the issue — Suffolk County Superior Court granted an injunction that blocked SPAM members from being fired over the mandate in March, then another 12 members were terminated in April, leading SPAM to threaten “even more legal action” against the vaccine mandate.

This week’s arbitration hearings in an office on State Street were scheduled based on the grievance process of the union’s collective bargaining agreement, McNamara said. SPAM filed a grievance for religious discrimination, allowing them to appear before the arbitration association for the hearings.

Now that other state employees have been rehired, the president said “this is all about fundamental fairness.”

“Gov. Baker has brought back executive branch members back to work. I guess the question to the Commonwealth is, why is public safety not on the top of priority?” McNamara said.

The suspended troopers are senior investigators, McNamara said. He added that they are okay with wearing masks and testing for COVID-19, as others who qualified for medical or religious exemptions were asked to do in certain cases.

He would not say if the seven suspended troopers had gotten new jobs since they have not been able to work.

“What I can tell you right now is our members are struggling,” he said. “I won’t get into the particulars of what their jobs are currently, but they are qualified troopers ready to come back to work and are unable to.”

When asked about the arbitration hearings and other state employees who have been rehired after failing to comply with the mandate, a Baker spokesperson had no comment.