Hospital Worker Fired for Refusing Flu Vaccine Mandate Wins Settlement Payout
The chickens are coming home to roost for vaccine dictators who make life miserable for people with religious objections to shots.
But it might be too little, too late for some.
A hospital maintenance worker was awarded a $45,000 payout after being fired by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta for requesting a religious exemption to the hospital’s mandatory flu vaccination policy, according to a Dec. 22 news release from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Newsweek reported the unnamed employee had received religious exemptions from the flu shot requirement in 2017 and 2018 when he was working for the pediatric hospital. However, in 2019, his exemption request was denied, and he was terminated, despite having little interaction with patients or other staff in his role, according to his complaint.
The firing prompted the former worker to file a religious discrimination lawsuit against Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta with the help of EEOC.
The agency said the hospital’s conduct violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which requires employers to reasonably accommodate employees’ sincerely held religious beliefs.
“It is the responsibility of an employer to accommodate its employees’ sincerely held religious beliefs,” Marcus G. Keegan, the regional attorney for the EEOC’s Atlanta District Office, said in a statement.
“Unless doing so would pose an undue hardship, an employer may not deny requested religious accommodations, let alone revoke those previously granted without issue,” Keegan said.
As part of the consent decree, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta will change its religious exemption procedures for the flu vaccine, the news release said. The hospital also will presume remote employees are eligible for exemptions and protect their ability to transfer to alternative positions if an exemption request is denied.
The decree further provides that the hospital will “train relevant employees on religious accommodation rights under Title VII.”
This “training” could be done in two seconds with one sentence: Respect people’s religious rights.
While hospitals have the right to take safety precautions for the health of their employees, it doesn’t give them the right to override the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom.
Additionally, the fact that this employee had received exemptions in 2017 and 2018, only to be denied in 2019, points to blatant religious discrimination.
While the payout awarded to the hospital worker represents a small victory for civil liberties, what about the civil liberties of employees who had to comply with immunization mandates out of sheer desperation to keep their jobs and livelihoods?
Some people may remember the case in 2002 where McDonald’s paid out $10 million to Hindu organizations for not disclosing beef tallow in the list of ingredients in its french fries, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
What if McDonald’s had forced its Hindu employees to eat the fries or lose their jobs?
For leftists, “my body, my choice” apparently doesn’t extend beyond abortion — which is a false argument given there are two bodies involved in abortion — and religious freedom pertains only to minorities.
But the truth is all Americans have the right to make decisions for their own bodies and the protection of their faith.
Although monetary settlements could never undo the distress caused to individuals who were forced to make a choice between their faith and providing for their families, it’s a start.
And perhaps if it really starts hurting their wallets, more companies will take into consideration people’s deeply held beliefs before mandating across-the-board vaccines.
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