Posted by: Daisy
Luther | on June 8, 2014
flu-shot
Every flu season,
many medical personnel, hospital staff, and educators are faced with a choice:
get the flu shot or get fired.
Most folks cave to
the pressure, because in an economy like the current one, you can’t really
afford to lose your job. Finally, a nurse from Hackettstown Regional Medical
Center in New Jersey has won a lawsuit after being terminated for refusing the
toxic injection.
A Warren County
nurse was unfairly denied unemployment benefits after she was fired for
refusing a flu shot without claiming a religious or medical exemption, a New
Jersey appeals court ruled today.
The three-judge
panel wrote that the hospital’s policy of allowing religious or medical
exemptions to the flu shot requirement “unconstitutionally discriminated
against” plaintiff June Valent by rejecting her refusal to be vaccinated for
secular reasons.
Valent was working
as a nurse at Hackettstown Regional Medical Center, then Hackettstown Community
Hospital, in 2010 when the hospital’s parent company began requiring employees
to take the flu vaccine unless they had medical or religious reasons not to.
Employees claiming an exemption were required to sign a form and provide
documentation. Anyone refusing the vaccine was required to wear a mask while at
work.
Valent declined the
vaccine but didn’t state a medical or religious reason, and agreed to wear a
mask. She was terminated based on her refusal of the vaccine and disqualified
for unemployment benefits by a Department of Labor board of review after
several hearings and appeals from both sides.
The board concluded
that the hospital demonstrated Valent had engaged in work-related misconduct by
refusing the flu shot, according to Thursday’s ruling.
The appellate
judges concluded that the hospital violated Valent’s right to freedom of
expression by endorsing the religious-based exemption while denying her secular
choice.
“By denying
appellant’s application to receive unemployment benefits based only on her
unwillingness to submit to the employer’s religion-based policy, the Board
violated appellant’s rights under the First Amendment,” the panel wrote.
(source)
Hospitals and other
healthcare facilities have been adamant regarding mandatory flu vaccines, even
going so far as to fire a pregnant woman who refused the shot. Hopefully this
victory will be a step towards protecting others who refuse these mandatory
invasions in the future.
About the author:
Please feel free to
share any information from this site in part or in full, giving credit to the
author and including a link to this website and the following bio.
Daisy Luther is a
freelance writer and editor. Her
website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including
premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can
follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at
daisy@theorganicprepper.ca
If you enjoyed this
article, please Vote for The Organic Prepper as a top prepping web site.
- See more at:
http://www.theorganicprepper.ca/victory-nurse-fired-for-refusing-flu-shot-wins-lawsuit-06082014#sthash.OEiQ0bzs.Cwqf5unj.dpuf
No comments:
Post a Comment