Four former employees of a continuing care retirement community filed suit in an Alabama federal district court last week claiming that they were wrongly fired for refusing the COVID vaccine on religious grounds. The 105-page complaint (full text) in Hamil v. Acts Retirement-Life Communities, Inc., (SD AL, filed 9/15/2002), contends that plaintiffs were subjected to a hostile work environment, harassment, and wrongful termination based on their sincerely held religious beliefs. They were denied religious exemptions, or had previously granted religious exemptions rescinded. According to the complaint:
Such conduct was undertaken to preserve Defendants' exorbitant sums of monetary assistance in the form of government grants, coronavirus relief funds, and Medicare and Medicaid funds....
In the case at hand, the crux of the issue is the unlawful employment practices undertaken by Defendant and not the constitutional validity of any vaccine mandate....
The complaint contains lengthy descriptions of plaintiffs' religious beliefs and alleges various violations of Title VII as well as numerous state law claims. 1819News reports on the lawsuit.
