ADVERTISEMENT

117 employees sue Texas hospital over mandatory vaccinations...

The Tradition

HR King
Apr 23, 2002
123,250
96,786
113
Over 100 employees have joined a lawsuit against Houston Methodist hospital in Texas for requiring all employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

The network, which oversees eight hospitals and has more than 26,000 employees, gave workers a deadline of June 7 to get the vaccine. If not, staffers risk suspension and termination, according to the lawsuit.

As a result, 117 employees have joined a lawsuit filed Friday in Montgomery County that alleges the hospital is "illegally requiring its employees to be injected with an experimental vaccine as a condition of employment."


PHOTO: An American flag flies outside the Houston Methodist Hospital at the Texas Medical Center campus in Houston, June 24, 2020.

Bloomberg via Getty Images, FILE
Bloomberg via Getty Images, FILE
An American flag flies outside the Houston Methodist Hospital at the Texas Medical Center camp...Read More


The lawsuit cited that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued its first emergency use authorization for COVID-19 in December 2020, but the vaccines are awaiting full FDA approval and licensing, which will likely take months for the agency to review additional data.

The complaint cited that forcing employees to get the vaccine violates Nuremberg Code, a medical ethics code which bans forced medical experiments and mandates voluntary consent.

Hospital CEO Dr. Marc Boom sent out a letter in April to staffers announcing that employees have to be vaccinated by June 7. "Please see the HR policy that outlines the consequences of not being compliant by June 7, which include suspension and eventually termination," the letter, which was included in the lawsuit, stated.

Attorney Jared Woodfill, who filed the lawsuit, told ABC News that Houston Methodist is forcing employees to get the shot to boost the hospital's profits.

"To promote its business and increase profits at the expense of other health care providers and their employees' health, Defendants advertise to the public that they 'require all employees and employed physicians to get a COVID-19 vaccine.' More clearly, Defendants' employees are being forced to serve as human 'guinea pigs' to increase Defendants' profits," Woodfill said.

"It is a severe and blatant violation of the Nuremberg Code and the public policy of the state of Texas," he added on the vaccine requirement.

The lawsuit says forcing the plaintiffs to take the vaccine violates public policy in Texas and requests a temporary injunction to prevent the hospital from terminating employees for refusing to get a vaccine shot.

When asked about alternative options for employees who did not want to get the COVID vaccine, Houston Methodist told ABC News that it offered "religious and medical exemptions, as well as deferrals for pregnant women."



PHOTO:A dose of Covid-19 vaccine is administered in Odessa, Texas, May 27, 2021.

Eli Hartman/AP
Eli Hartman/AP
A dose of Covid-19 vaccine is administered in Odessa, Texas, May 27, 2021.

The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, a federal government agency that protects workers from discrimination, issued a new guidance Friday that said employers can legally require COVID-19 vaccines to re-enter a physical workplace as long as they follow requirements to find alternative arrangements for employees unable to get vaccinated for medical reasons or religious beliefs.

Some of those accommodations may be allowing an unvaccinated employee to wear a face mask and social distance while at work, to work a modified shift, get periodic tests for COVID-19, be given the opportunity to telework or accept a reassignment, according to the guidance.

EEOC reminded employees in the document that they are legally protected from harassment such as anti-Asian bias or if they feel they are not being allowed to work because they are high risk from COVID-19.

Houston Methodist CEO Boom released a statement in response to the lawsuit Friday, saying 99% of the network's employees have been vaccinated.

"It is unfortunate that the few remaining employees who refuse to get vaccinated and put our patients first are responding in this way," he said in the statement sent to ABC News. "It is legal for health care institutions to mandate vaccines, as we have done with the flu vaccine since 2009. The COVID-19 vaccines have proven through rigorous trials to be very safe and very effective and are not experimental."


That lawyer sounds like a real douche canoe.
 
Eleven former Wisconsin nursing home workers could seek a total of $550,000 in damages from the county that allegedly fired them for refusing to submit to its COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

The former workers filed notice of claim with the state’s Rock County earlier this month, which starts proceedings that could result in legal action against the government entity, the Gazette Xtra reported. Stakeholders around the country have debated the implications and legality of vaccination mandates, creating divided opinions.

The claim stems from a local mandate that ordered employees at the county-run nursing home, Rock Haven, to receive the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine during scheduled clinics earlier this year.

The affected workers argue that the vaccine requirement violates federal law that gives people a right to decline emergency authorized vaccines. The employees said they were later laid off for refusing to submit to the mandate.

The 11 workers would each seek $50,000 in lost wages, benefits and reimbursement of legal fees if a lawsuit moved ahead, according to the notice.

The county mandate is “a deliberate and unlawful taking away of Rock Haven’s statutorily-guaranteed right to decide for themselves whether to accept or refuse administration of a COVID-19 vaccine,” plaintiff attorney Michael Anderson wrote in the claim.

A Rock County Board committee this week recommended that the county discontinue the vaccine mandate as a condition of employment and reinstate all workers who were laid off.

A full county vote on the mandate is expected to happen by the end of next week.

 
As Ron zeimers Raygun, GOP god, once did to patco the air traffic controllers union, fire everyone of these f'ers.
 
What's the name? Houston Methodist?

*Note to self: Dont go there if ever in Houston; Covid is passed around among staff like a beer bong at a frat party*
 
  • Haha
Reactions: The Tradition
Didn't employers win a verdict to be able to fire employees who smoke cigarettes (even if not at the job)? If I was the employer, I'd be sure to look into that case for legal support to make staff get vaccines. The hospital is the property of ownership. If you're on their property as an employee, gotta do what they ask. That's how I understand property rights working between employer and employee. If you're homeless and jobless, then you're "free."
 
  • Like
Reactions: DFSNOLE
Didn't employers win a verdict to be able to fire employees who smoke cigarettes (even if not at the job)? If I was the employer, I'd be sure to look into that case for legal support to make staff get vaccines. The hospital is the property of ownership. If you're on their property as an employee, gotta do what they ask. That's how I understand property rights working between employer and employee. If you're homeless and jobless, then you're "free."

This is nonsense.

I should be able to walk, unvaccinated, in to Steadman Family Children's Hospital on gameday to take pee or just wander around the visitor areas, then head on over to the game so I can "Wave Goodbye" to the kids I'll give Covid after the 1st Quarter.

FREEDUMB!!!!!
 
  • Haha
Reactions: Eternal Return
Unfortunately they probably have solid legal standing. When will the FDA approve the vaccines? That would solve all of this.
Good point. Just make the mandate upon full FDA approval of at least one of the vaccines. Say within 30 days (assuming available supply, which THE Methodist should have zero trouble obtaining).
 
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. If they don’t want to get vaccinated, they can find another job.
Why? This isn't like the masks where we were depending on others for OUR health. You want the vaccine, go get it and be safe. If you don't, then get sick and possibly die. At this point it's on them, but it shouldn't be mandatory.
 
Why? This isn't like the masks where we were depending on others for OUR health. You want the vaccine, go get it and be safe. If you don't, then get sick and possibly die. At this point it's on them, but it shouldn't be mandatory.
Maybe because unvaccinated staff can put a strain on your staffing levels...and in this case the health care workers have gone above and beyond to provide care for a really long time.
 
Maybe because unvaccinated staff can put a strain on your staffing levels...and in this case the health care workers have gone above and beyond to provide care for a really long time.

Healthcare workers are not lining up for the vaccine, dude.

It blows my mind that the won't comply.
 
ADVERTISEMENT