Ascension workers sue over vaccine exemptions

INDIANAPOLIS (Inside INdiana Enterprise) — Dozens of workers of St. Louis-based Ascension have filed a lawsuit claiming their non secular beliefs have been violated when the corporate fired them after refusing to obtain the COVID-19 vaccine. Our companions at WEHT-TV report the lawsuit claims Ascension, which operates quite a few hospitals in Indiana, denied non secular exemptions for the employees.

Greater than 60 individuals filed the lawsuit within the U.S. District Courtroom for the Southern District of Indiana and are searching for class motion standing.

In response to the lawsuit, Ascension St. Vincent, which operates the hospitals, “established a non secular exemption overview course of which did not individually and correctly assess every software for non secular exemption.”

“Ascension Well being established a coercive course of calculated to power healthcare employees and employees to desert their non secular objections to the COVID-19 vaccination and obtain the vaccination towards their will,” the lawsuit states. ” Ascension Well being’s strain techniques concerned delaying ultimate choices on requests for non secular exemptions and denying functions for exemption inside time frames that gave candidates little time after denial to contemplate choices apart from vaccination, amongst different issues.”

The lawsuit alleges in lots of circumstances, the workers obtained the identical, one-sentence response to their exemption requests. The plaintiffs additionally declare Ascension workers in totally distant positions have been additionally denied exemptions.

The plaintiffs are searching for to be reinstated to their earlier positions with again pay and granted their non secular exemptions to the vaccine.

WEHT reached out to Ascension for remark, however the firm stated it could not touch upon pending litigation.

You possibly can view the complete lawsuit, courtesy of WEHT, by clicking right here.