A group of employees terminated by BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee (BCBST) pertaining to the Covid-19 vaccine mandate has filed suit in Chattanooga Federal Court against the insuror.
The suit was brought by lead plaintiffs James M. Abernathy, Kerrie Ingle and Heather Hutton.
A spokesman for the group said after a lengthy investigative process by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) since November 2021, the terminated employees have received their right to sue letters and had filed the class action suit in federal court.
Between October and November 2021, BCBST terminated 41 of their employees after BCBST implemented a Covid-19 vaccine mandate for 900 "customer facing roles."
The group said many of the 900 employees were not "customer facing" but were full time telecommuters and had been working from home during the entire pandemic.
The livelihoods of these 900 employees were threatened if they refused to comply with BCBST's vaccine mandate, the group said.
Out of the 900, 41 refused to comply with BCBST’s mandate and were fired from their positions. Some still have yet to secure employment, it was stated.
In October 2021, 19 employees were terminated. In November 2021, 22 additional employees were fired weeks ahead of a Tennessee law being passed to prevent BCBST from moving forward with the mandate. Many submitted requests for religious exemptions and reasonable accommodations, it was stated.
The group said, "Rather than provide a reasonable accommodation such as a telecommuting option (an option that was currently in place and was continuing for the entire year) or a testing option, BCBST's response was that you have 30 days to change your deeply held religious convictions and get the shot, find a new job, or be fired. Requests for religious exemptions were ultimately denied."
The case has been assigned to Judge Curtis Collier.