Liberty Counsel announced that it has settled a class action lawsuit against an Illinois hospital system on behalf of more than 337 employees and former employees who opposed the mandate of COVID-19 vaccination of the system for religious reasons.
Liberty Counsel announced on Friday that it had reached an agreement of $10.3 million with NorthShore University HealthSystem, based in Chicago, after the hospital system laid off hundreds of workers who claimed vaccination exemptions on the grounds of religious freedom.
“This collective agreement providing compensation and the opportunity to return to work is the first of its kind in the nation involving COVID vaccination mandates. This agreement should be a wake-up call to all employers who did not accept employees who opposed COVID vaccines on religious grounds,” said Mat Staver, founder and president of Liberty Counsel, according to The Blaze.
The agreement was filed in the Federal Court of the Northern District of Illinois and must be approved by the court.
In a statement, Liberty Counsel said this is a landmark class action settlement and the first of its kind involving a dispute over religious exemption applications for COVID Vaccines-19.
Liberty Counsel said healthcare workers were unlawfully discriminated against and denied religious exemptions from the COVID vaccine mandate.
NorthShore is an integrated health care delivery system encompassing six hospitals in the Chicago metropolitan area and employs more than 10 thousand people.
According to court documents, NorthShore estimated that approximately 500 employees requested and were denied a religious exemption and/or accommodations to their vaccination policy between July 1, 2021 and January 1, 2022. Of those employees, approximately 204 were vaccinated while 269 were fired or quit instead of complying with the vaccination mandate.
“As a result of the settlement, NorthShore will pay $10 ,337,500 dollars to compensate these health care employees who were victims of discrimination and that they were punished for their religious beliefs against injection associated with aborted fetal cells,” said Liberty Counsel.
Liberty Counsel estimated that employees who were terminated or resigned because their religious exemption request was denied will receive approximately $19 thousand dollars each. Employees who accepted the COVID-19 vaccine to keep their jobs will receive about $3,000 each.
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