Posted on 07/30/2022 6:42:32 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The first settlement in the U.S. has been reached in a class action lawsuit filed by health care workers over a university system’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Chicago-based NorthShore University HealthSystem has agreed to pay more than 500 current and former health-care workers a total of $10,337,500 as part of the terms of the settlement. It’s also changing its policy to accommodate religious exemption requests and rehiring former employees who were fired or forced to resign whose exemption requests were denied.
Represented by the nonprofit religious freedom organization Liberty Counsel, NorthShore employees sued, alleging they were discriminated against because they were denied religious exemptions from the company’s vaccine mandate. The settlement was filed Friday in the federal Northern District Court of Illinois.
The is the “first-of-its-kind class action settlement against a private employer who unlawfully denied hundreds of religious exemption requests to COVID-19 shots,” Liberty Counsel said. Its founder and chairman, Mat Staver, said it “should be a wake-up call to every employer that did not accommodate or exempt employees who opposed the COVID shots for religious reasons. Let this case be a warning to employers that violated Title VII.”
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.
The settlement nearly concludes a conflict that began after NorthShore rejected employees’ religious accommodation requests to its “Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccination Policy.” Last October, Liberty Counsel sent a demand letter on behalf of the impacted employees but NorthShore didn’t change its policy. As a result, Liberty Counsel filed a class action lawsuit.
“If NorthShore had agreed then to follow the law and grant religious exemptions, the matter would have been quickly resolved and it would have cost it nothing,” Liberty Counsel said.
(Excerpt) Read more at justthenews.com ...
This followed a decision, earlier in July from a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, which struck down a Los Angeles County Unified School District (LAUSD) COVID vaccine requirement for students, finding the district exceeded its authority and that the resolution approving the mandate clashes with state law by not allowing exemptions for personal beliefs.
This should serve as a big warning sign to companies who have done this or who would think about doing this to their employees ever again in the future.
Sometimes we get great news! 👍🏻👍🏻
Let’s hope these Nazis get sued big time. They deserve it.
This doesn’t sound so great.
It does not address the issue of whether an employer can mandate a potentially dangerous medical procedure as a condition of employment.
To argue that not wanting the shot must be based on religious beliefs is absurd.
and it’s only 20k each person for violating their civil rights
20k before lawyers?
“and it’s only 20k each person for violating their civil rights”
Actually, it’s $25,000 for each person fired, plus an additional $20,000 for the lead plaintiffs.
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