Hundreds of potential lawsuits could lie ahead for NorthShore University Healthsystem from employees who claim they were unjustly fired for refusing to take a COVID vaccine, according to a report recently fired in federal court.
On Jan. 13, attorneys for NorthShore and for a group of current and former NorthShore employees filed a joint report in Chicago federal court.
The report was requested by a district court judge to update the court on the status of a court fight that has raged since last fall, not long after NorthShore announced it would seek to terminate any employee who refused to receive a full dose of a COVID vaccine, and who the company determined did not qualify for a medical or religious exemption.
Horatio Mihet
| Liberty Counsel Facebook video screenshot
NorthShore operates six Chicago area hospitals , including Evanston Hospital; Glenbrook Hospital, in Glenview; Highland Park Hospital; Northwest Community Hospital, in Arlington Heights; Skokie Hospital; and Swedish Hospital, in Chicago.
Last August, the company notified its entire 18,000-member workforce that they were all required to take a COVID vaccine, or risk termination, if they did not qualify for an exemption.
As the deadline approached at the end of October, a group of workers filed suit, claiming NorthShore was violating their civil rights by allegedly refusing to accept their stated religious objections to the available COVID vaccines.
Many of them said they provided the hospital with detailed explanations of their religious objections to the vaccines, centered on their understanding that the vaccines were developed, in part, using cell lines obtained from fetuses which may have been aborted decades earlier.
They said their interpretation of Christian scripture, as found in the Bible, concerning the sacred nature of human life, led them to reject medical treatments derived, in any part, from such fetal cell lines.
However, according to the lawsuit, NorthShore allegedly still rejected their requests for exemption. The plaintiffs assert NorthShore’s exemption review process was “a sham," set up to conceal their desire to "purge" religious adherents from the hospitals' employment ranks.
The case also asserts NorthShore took these actions without any evidence that unvaccinated employees posed any greater health risk to patients, than vaccinated employees who may also contract and spread COVID.
A federal judge initially granted their request for a restraining order, blocking NorthShore from firing workers seeking religious exemptions.
However, a month later, U.S. District Judge John F. Kness relented, denying the workers’ request for an injunction, and lifting the stay on NorthShore’s plan to fire vaccine mandate resisters.
The judge said he did not believe the workers would suffer “irreparable harm,” because NorthShore could be made to pay later, if it is determined they were wrongfully terminated.
According to the Jan. 13 report, NorthShore indicated all but one of the plaintiffs now “no longer work” for NorthShore.
Despite the loss, the plaintiffs, through their attorneys at Liberty Counsel, a non-profit religious liberty advocacy organization based in Orlando, Florida, have continued to press their claims against NorthShore.
In recent weeks, the plaintiffs and NorthShore have sparred in court over whether the case should be allowed to proceed as a class action, or whether the former workers should be compelled to press their claims individually.
In the Jan. 13 report, the plaintiffs’ lawyers indicated “several hundred employees and former employees of NorthShore” have filed or will file complaints against NorthShore with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a precursor to ultimately filing federal discrimination lawsuits.
The plaintiffs said they believed those plaintiffs will be cleared to file discrimination claims in court in the spring and summer of 2022.
The plaintiffs are expected to ask the court to allow them to press the claims as one class action, rather than individual claims. According to the report, the plaintiffs expect to file that motion in May. They are expected to ask the judge to rule on their class certification request by early summer.
NorthShore, however, is seeking a longer timeframe to allow for more time for arguments and briefing.
The hospital system is also expected to oppose the class certification request.
In the report, NorthShore further said it “is not aware of any information regarding the intent of a significant number of employees” to file complaints with the EEOC.
The company said it would “question the veracity” of plaintiffs’ claims concerning the number of terminated NorthShore workers that could soon be headed to court against their former employer.
All told, the case could carry on far into 2023, if not longer, according to a proposed schedule outlined in the report.
NorthShore is represented in the case by attorney David E. Dahlquist, and others with the firms of Winston & Strawn and Seyfarth Shaw, both of Chicago.
The former NorthShore employees are represented by attorney Horatio G. Mihet, and others with Liberty Counsel, and of Leahu Law Group, of Chicago.