Posted on 10/28/2024 7:45:33 AM PDT by george76
At issue is a vaccine mandate for BART workers in San Francisco that was imposed in 2021..
Rail transit officials in California’s Bay Area have been ordered to pay more than $7 million to transit workers who were fired because they refused to get a COVID-19 vaccine years ago.
On Oct. 23, a federal jury in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California sided with six former San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) workers who had refused to get the vaccine for religious purposes.
BART was ordered to pay the group more than $7.8 million, with each individual receiving between $1.2 million and $1.5 million, the Pacific Justice Institute, which represented the transit workers in the trial, said in a statement on Oct. 24. The institute, a law firm representing the six former employees since 2022, said the eight-person jury deliberated for two days this week before returning the verdict that awarded the employees the compensation. About a week ago, the federal jury also determined that BART had failed to prove that it suffered an undue hardship by denying accommodations to the ex-employees in the case.
On Oct. 23, the jury further found that the six employees met the burden of showing that there was a conflict between their religious beliefs and the BART vaccine mandate, which was implemented in 2021.
According to the law firm, the jury also agreed with the figures that the plaintiffs had provided for lost wages that they had suffered after losing their jobs. The jury then added $1 million each to those figures, the firm said, describing the verdict as a “legal earthquake.”
“The rail employees chose to lose their livelihood rather than deny their faith. That in itself shows the sincerity and depth of their convictions,“ Kevin Snider, the Pacific Justice Institute’s chief counsel, who served as lead trial attorney, said. ”After nearly three years of struggle, these essential workers feel they were heard and understood by the jury and are overjoyed and relieved by the verdict.”
The law firm stated: “During the trial, jurors heard compelling testimony from dedicated employees. One of the plaintiffs had worked for more than 30 years for BART, with a stretch of 10 years perfect attendance, before being unceremoniously dismissed. Another had been out on workers comp for months, with no scheduled return date, when she was fired.”
Lawyers for BART argued that multiple employees who had conflicts with receiving the vaccine had secular—rather than religious—reasons. But the jury disagreed with those arguments, the Pacific Justice Institute said.
The vaccine mandate was approved by BART’s board of directors in October 2021 and stipulated that all employees must get the COVID-19 vaccine. It allowed some employees to be exempt from the vaccine, including for religious reasons.
A year later, BART employees filed a class-action lawsuit accusing the operator of denying religious accommodations in violation of state law.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who presided over the lawsuit against BART, ruled that the operator’s policies did not violate the employees’ right to religious freedom, according to an order he issued in March.
A separate order issued by Alsup in January found that BART received 188 requests for a religious exemption and accommodation, and of that figure, 40 chose not to complete the process. They were either terminated from employment or ultimately got the vaccine.
“Plaintiffs’ putative class fails because its members have little in common beyond their request for religious accommodation,” the judge further said in his order. “They do not share a common religious objection. They do not share a vocation or a set of contractual rights. They do not present a similar set of potential accommodations and associated burdens. They do not present similar health and exposure concerns.
“Potential accommodations do not impact the same pool of coworkers. Those coworkers do not have the same bargained-for rights.”
Unfortunately, that $1 million each will be paid by the taxpayers. It SHOULD be paid by anyone and everyone who used their power/authority to try to coerce people into getting jabbed in the first place. Every single one of those tyrants should be utterly bankrupted. Instead, we all get to pay for it.
I want all the J6 defendants to sue after Trump wins, so Trump can instruct the justice department to settle with them for millions each.
It’s ridiculous that they had to rely upon religious accommodations.
I say that the fired employees be paid from the pension funds of the people responsible.
You know what I’ve always found interesting...
There were companies covered by the POTATUS’s EO that never fired refuseniks.
Those companies were never gone after by Deep State.
Why was that...?
And by refuseniks I mean people who just refused and didn’t try to get an exemption. Just said I refuse.
And those employees were never fired.
Response from Deep State...
(crickets)
Why was that...? 🤔
Looks like the US Constitution wins again. Why the heck are there foreign governments like California, operating in the US?
My oh my.... Someone is being benevolent with someone else’s money. A million???? Isn’t that a bit high!!
good news.
Darn I didn’t get the jab. I wish I could get a million.
I’d like to know when we can start suing China for creating the disease in the first place, compensating for those us who were injured by the virus.
Exactly—those vaccines were untested and dangerous for anyone—regardless of their religious beliefs.
Yes
After the Feds and NY take their share they will end up with 400,000 each!! After being out of work for 4 years and have probably lost about all they owned!!
Yes but maybe you kept your health which is worth a lot more.
My governor (D)ictator Walz demanded I get jabbed just for being a citizen in Minnesota.
I didn’t.
Minnesota should cut me a check.
The same politicians who aid and abet illegal aliens spreading unknown diseases everywhere, can't argue anyone needs to do anything for public health.
Not like the defendants even have the money to pay. I remember NYC going bankrupt in the ‘70s. So now it’s the left coast’s turn to go belly up.
Hopefully this sets precedent for people who are fired as a result of vaccine mandates in other companies. The only annoying thing is that this will likely be paid by taxpayers, not the people who made the decision
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