Posted on 05/02/2021 2:11:47 PM PDT by george76
Houston woman let go from her job as a nurse after refusing to get COVID-19 vaccine..
FOX 26 Reporter Maria Salazar spoke with the woman who claimed she was also silenced and harassed.
A Houston-area woman says she was a nurse at Houston Methodist for about 10 years until this week.
"I knew that the date was looming over my head of me to get the vaccine and we were constantly being pressured and pressured," Michelle Fuentes told FOX 26.
On April 1, Houston Methodist announced it would require employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine by June 7. However, the hospital system asked employees who would not get the vaccine to submit documentation for consideration for a medical or religious exemption by May 3.
Fuentes says she made a final effort to voice her concern to save her job at Houston Methodist before turning in her two-weeks notice.
"I just needed a little bit more time and little bit more research to be done," Fuentes stated.
She adds she wants the clinical trials to be completed before she decides to get the vaccine or not. But stresses she is not against vaccines and gets the flu vaccine every year.
A spokesperson for the hospital system says 90% of employees are vaccinated now, and only two in management have resigned so far.
Fuentes says a supervisor encouraged her to file for a religious exemption.
"And I said, 'Well, I don't have a religious exemption. I'm not doing this for religious reasons,' and she said, 'I know, but we'll help you fill it out, and at least this will save your job,'" Fuentes claims. "So, because I don't have a religious reason and it's a personal reason, my beliefs and my feelings aren't as worthy as someone who has a religious reason?"
Fuentes says when she did not agree to stay quiet about the reason for her departure, she was not allowed to complete her final two weeks and escorted out of the hospital.
In response, Houston Methodist stated they do not advise those who decline the vaccine for personal reasons to file for a religious exemption. Adding:
"We have a process in place for the employees who want to request a religious/medical exemption--- like we have had for the flu shot for more than a decade. Not all exemptions are granted."
In the meantime, Fuentes says she was prepared to wear masks at work and show lab results of COVID-19 antibodies since she'd recovered from the disease.
She adds, she regularly worked in a surgical unit, but volunteered to work in the COVID-19 unit.
"I want to be known that I was a safe nurse when I worked at the height of the pandemic and volunteered to work and did work in the COVID unit. So, I was a safe nurse then, not vaccinated, and I was able to turn back around and work in my unit without being tested and without being vaccinated," Fuentes said.
Houston Methodist adds:
"Our employees have the choice to stay or leave—we are not forcing anyone to get a vaccine. But over everything, we must put patients first. It is our obligation as health care workers to do no harm to our patients, who are among the most vulnerable in our community."
Generally, employers are able to require employees to get vaccinated. Clayton Craighead, an employment attorney in Houston, says there are the two exemption that both deal with accomodations.
"One of them is an accomodation under the American with Disabilities Act and the second exception is an accomodation on a religious basis. In order to establish an entitlement under the ADA, the employee would have to provide some sort of documentation from a doctor explaining why he or she, could not or should not receive the vaccination due to some medical condition or disability," Craighead explained.
He adds the employer is going to be required to provide the accomodation unless the employer can demonstrate doing so would create an undue burden on the organization.
"For example in the health industry, it probably would be very difficult to allow employees to not be vaccinated," he noted.
The second accomodation requires employees to demonstrate they have sincerely held religious belief that prohibits them from getting the vaccine.
"An employer, in order to avoid providing that accommodation of religion, has to also demonstrate undue burden but the standard is actually lower for religious accomodation than it is under the American with Disabilities Act," Craighead added.
Plenty of other Hospitals in Houston to work for.
I was forced to take something. I forget what it was now while in the Navy. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t get paid
Saltpeter
What part of experimental do you not understand? Maybe you should volunteer yourself for all future vaccines. Most of us don’t want to be a lab rat. You could do it for us.
Apology accepted....sorry I called you an A hole...but these days on this forum, “people” can get pretty mean to women ...”all in fun”... ( I am NOT anti-men)and I wasn’t the only one who didn’t get your sarcasm.....
....truce.
It comes with the job.
Get the required shots or go work in a gas station.
Lucky for her she got another job. I wouldn’t want to work for insane people anyway. Its very suspicious how they are getting desperate to get the rest of us to get that shot.
Its getting us ready for the mark of the beast. I’m sure you will be first in line because your employer told you too.
Why oh why, did she she resign? Let them fire her and then she could collect unemployment off of them while suing them for wrongful termination.
princess leah wrote:
“I work in a senior living community and our Corp HR is run by a flaming liberal and they now have two forms upon signing into work: 1 a short form for the Have been Vaccinated and 2 a long form for us Non-vaccers! And starting May 14th if you have NOT been vaccinated and travel out of the local community, you have to self quarantine for a week before coming back to work...Talk about discrimination and violation of HIPPA laws,”
Get copies of those forms, and any instructions on their use.
It may come in handy later on.
Document
Document
Document
Also:
And, this is in AZ????
Yes....keep all of this well documented.
IrishBrigade wrote:
“
‘Time for a class action lawsuit..’
on what grounds...? she gave them two weeks notice...”
They walked her out, so she was fired:
“Fuentes says when she did not agree to stay quiet about the reason for her departure, she was not allowed to complete her final two weeks and escorted out of the hospital.”
She was also retaliated against for speaking out.
That’s another strike against the employer.
Amen, roving.
Unreal to see people, here, insist this nurse...who’s already had the china flu...and, has the antibodies that will likely last 17 YEARS....and, has seen the adverse effects of those who’ve had/not had china flu taking these jabs.....insist she take the jab.
Sick pups.
voicereason wrote:
“
“I am pretty sure that the COVID vaccines have not been stamped “supercool” yet.”
Moderna’s own filings clearly state they can’t label their shot a vaccine per the FDA, and must refer to it as a gene-therapy. Regardless, all of the companies with shots out there still need two additional trials each before they would be normally approved.”
And you have government and businesses pushing and coercing people to get the shots, and pressing for “vaccine passports” in order to return to ‘normal’.
Massive, massive breach of laws...
Agree.
So it is Houston Medical’s obligation to superfluously vaccinate somebody who already had COVID-19? It seems to me that already having COVID-19 would be an exemption.
SauronOfMordor wrote:
“
https://www.osha.gov/coronavirus/faqs#collapse-vaccine2
If you require your employees to be vaccinated as a condition of employment (i.e., for work-related reasons), then any adverse reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine is work-related. The adverse reaction is recordable if it is a new case under 29 CFR 1904.6 and meets one or more of the general recording criteria in 29 CFR 1904.7.”
Good find!!!
They didn’t let her finish her two weeks.
She found another job, so would not get the unemployment money.
That is absolutely not true. The government backed down on that quickly when they saw how many refused it.
My DIL is a nurse and I told her the same thing, she don’t want to get the shots but it’s required for the job,
You don’t always get what you want.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.