The debate over religious exemptions to vaccine mandates in the workplace has taken a significant turn in San Francisco. The Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) has been ordered to pay approximately $7.8 million to six former employees. According to a Bloomberg Law report, these individuals lost their jobs after seeking religious exemptions to the agency’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate for workers. A jury for the US District Court for the Northern District of California rendered the decision, awarding over $1 million in damages to each former employee involved.
During the trial, the jury rejected BART’s defense that it couldn’t reasonably accommodate the unvaccinated employees without facing undue hardship. Notably, despite BART filing a motion for judgment as a matter of law, which Judge William Alsup agreed would be argued in December, Alsup declared a partial mistrial in July when the previous jury was deadlocked on undue hardship accommodation. These workers argued that BART failed to honor their requests for religious exemption, leading to the termination of their employment—a matter that Judge Alsup had declined to certify as a class action, requiring individual proofs of the agency violating religious rights instead.
Kevin Snider of the Pacific Justice Institute, representing the workers, was quoted in the Bloomberg Law article as saying that “the rail employees chose to lose their livelihood rather than deny their faith.” The attorney highlighted the sincerity of the employees’ convictions and noted their relief after the jury verdict. BART has declined to comment on the verdict as of now.
Reflecting sentiments from earlier in the case, Albert Roth, one of the workers affected by the vaccine mandate, had been firm in his stance. “I’m not giving in and there’s a number of us that have the same opinion. We’re not giving in, we’re holding ground, holding firm on what our beliefs are,” Roth had told ABC7 News back in 2021. Rhiannon Doyle also expressed a stoic resolve, saying, “I’ve been homeless before and this is what I told the BART board, ya know. I’m not afraid to be homeless again, it is what it is, but now they’re tapping into people’s rights and I’m not going to stand for that, not on my watch.”
While BART granted some vaccine exemptions initially, the plaintiffs contended they were not sufficiently accommodated. According to those involved in the case, reasonable accommodations might have included possibilities to work from home or undergo regular Covid testing. With a transit agency already forecasted between $350 and $400 million in the red, the financial implications of this verdict on BART remain to be fully understood.
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