Judge sides with PeaceHealth in religious discrimination COVID-19 lawsuits

A federal court granted judgments to PeaceHealth in lawsuits filed by four former hospital employees who were put on unpaid leave in 2021 after refusing the COVID-19 vaccine because of religious beliefs.

The May 31 rulings granted PeaceHealth’s motions for summary judgment in separate lawsuits alleging religious discrimination.

The former employees at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend — two nurses, a pharmacy technician and a housekeeping worker — received religious exemptions after declining the vaccine, but argued they could have stayed on the job if given frequent tests for the coronavirus and provided N95 respirators as personal protective equipment.

Epidemiologist Michael Mina, a former Harvard assistant professor who became widely known in the early months of the pandemic as an advocate for rapid antigen testing, submitted written testimony on their behalf.

But U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken wrote that “N95 respirators and ‘regular testing’ in lieu of vaccination would have imposed undue hardship” for PeaceHealth. Aiken cited PeaceHealth testimony about health risks, which the workers had challenged in court filings.

“Increasing the risk of viral spread (and the risk of severe illness and death) to PeaceHealth’s vulnerable and largely unvaccinated patient population alone would have constituted undue hardship,” Aiken wrote.

She also wrote that “the additional cost to operationalize, for hundreds of employees, fitted N95 respirators and daily or weekly testing — even assuming that PeaceHealth could have obtained sufficient supplies/capacity — and to monitor and enforce compliance would have been untenable.”

Martin Whittaker, a St. Louis-based attorney who represented the former workers, said he was disappointed in the ruling and considering an appeal. 

The evidence should have been presented to a Eugene jury, not ruled on by a judge, Whittaker said.

Aiken called Mina’s testimony “not reliable,” stating that much of the research he cited “would not have been available to PeaceHealth in August 2021 when it made the undue hardship decision at issue here.” Aiken also wrote that “Mina’s opinion is not supported by the August 2021 scientific consensus.”

Whittaker called Mina’s credentials “impeccable” and said his “opinions should have been respected more.”

“We think that the court shouldn’t have decided as a matter of law that his opinions are unreliable,” Whittaker said. “We don’t believe that that’s the proper function of a court on a summary judgment motion.”

The most recent judgments follow a previous “undue hardship” ruling in religious discrimination lawsuits filed by former RiverBend workers.

Jim Murez, a PeaceHealth spokesperson, said the former workers had been placed on unpaid leave “as an accommodation until it was safe to return to onsite work.”

Murez praised Aiken’s ruling, which he said “provides helpful guidance on vaccine-related policies in healthcare settings and reinforces our commitment to caregiver and patient safety.”