Advocates for Faith & Freedom
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, January 30, 2024
CONTACT: nicole velasco @
media@faith-freedom.COM
The Class Action Allows Hundreds of Employees the Opportunity to Prove Their Damages
Murrieta, CA – Monday evening, January 29, 2024, Federal Judge Beth Labson Freeman of the Northern District of California certified a vaccine-related lawsuit as a class action for liability purposes, allowing hundreds of employees in Santa Clara County who were placed on unpaid leave for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine to prove their damages.
This case challenges the County’s discriminatory COVID-19 vaccine orders and practices, which relegated employees to unpaid leave, even if they had a religious exemption. The January 29 order allows the Plaintiffs to proceed to trial on behalf of a class of hundreds of employees in the County who declined to take the vaccine due to their religious convictions.
Specifically, the Court certified the following class:
All individuals who: 1) work or worked for the County and/or [] were subject to its vaccine policies and orders, including the Risk Tier System; 2) were forced by the County to choose between taking the vaccine to maintain their jobs and/or their employment-related benefits or being placed on unpaid leave; 3) were [] classified as working in high-risk jobs pursuant to the County’s Risk Tier System; and 4) received [] a religious exemption from the County (the “Class”) between August 5, 2021 and September 27, 2022 (the “Class Period”).
“We are confident that we will prevail because the County’s vaccine policies and practices were arbitrary and capricious and discriminated against religious employees,” says Mariah Gondeiro, an attorney for Advocates for Faith & Freedom. Advocates has been appointed as Co-Class Counsel along with Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP.
“The County owes these courageous county employees, who worked faithfully throughout the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, lost wages and benefits,” says Bethany Onishenko, also an attorney with Advocates for Faith & Freedom.
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