Six holdout BART employees who lost their jobs after refusing to take the coronavirus vaccine have won $7.8 million in federal court after BART failed to honor their religious exemptions. .
Earlier this week, we mentioned how six BART employees who were fired for refusing to get the coronavirus vaccine sued the transit agency in federal court, alleging that BART denied them religious exemptions. Of course, BART required all employees to be vaccinated in an October 2021 order, but at the time the Bay Area was experiencing 5,000 new coronavirus cases each week.
But the Chronicle reported that a federal jury sided with the dismissed vaccine refusers, awarding them $7.8 million in damages. The jury ruled that BART could not show how accommodating these employees’ so-called religious exemptions would have posed an “undue hardship” to the agency.
Money is not distributed equally among employees. The six plaintiffs will each receive between $1.2 million and $1.5 million, according to SFGate.
The six employees were represented by a right-wing legal group called the Pacific Justice Institute. “The choice between religious beliefs and loss of livelihood caused a seismic shift in the lives of railroad workers,” Kevin Snyder, chief counsel at the Pacific Justice Institute, said in a statement carried by the Chronicle. said. “It was important to these employees that the jury heard and understood their story.”
BART said it had “no comment” on the ruling.
For local marijuana enthusiasts, the name Pacific Justice Institute may ring a bell. It is also the organization that led the charge in 2017 to deny an Outer Sunset marijuana dispensary that was to be co-owned by former Oakland Mayor Gene Quan. The group also sued the city of San Francisco in 2016 for installing a pisoir in Dolores Park.
As Bloomberg reported in July, 16 former BART employees were able to obtain financial settlements, although there were other BART employees who were fired but did not participate in the lawsuit. The size of those settlements was not reported at the time.
RELATED: Six former BART employees file suit in federal court alleging they were fired for refusing to get vaccinated (SFist)
Image: Pi.1415926535 (via Wikimedia Commons)
