Five care home workers who lost their jobs after refusing to have the Covid jab were fairly sacked

Five nursing home workers who lost their jobs after refusing a Covid shot have been fired, a judge has ruled.

Barchester Healthcare, one of Britain’s largest healthcare providers, has fired five healthcare workers for refusing Covid-19 vaccines without any medical exemption.

The labor judge dismissed the wrongful dismissal claims saying the home had laid off unvaccinated staff to protect clinically vulnerable lives.

The nurse, the laundry worker and three care assistants argued that they should not have lost their jobs for refusing to comply with the company’s vaccination schedule, saying they refused the vaccine because of their spiritual and philosophical beliefs.

But the employment tribunal, held in Leeds, ruled that the workers, one of whom believes “God will protect her” from the coronavirus, had not been fired without good reason.

It decided that the health care company had a “legitimate objective…to minimize the risk of death and serious illness among residents and staff” and that such a move was “necessary in a democratic society.”

Labor judge Neil Maidment said: ‘[Barchester Healthcare] he sought to minimize the risk of death, placing genuine value on saving the life of any resident.

‘Any contrary attitude from a nursing home provider could have been considered disruptive.’

Judge Maidment acknowledged that the reason for firing the workers, while ‘unusual’, was ‘genuine and substantial’ and said the company ‘believed that its policy (subject to medical exemption) to only employ vaccinated home care staff would save lives’ .

He said: “The court concludes that any interference with human rights in the circumstances of this case was proportionate.”

Barchester Healthcare operates more than 250 nursing homes and seven registered hospitals nationwide that employ more than 17,000 nursing home employees providing residential and nursing care.

The audience was told that the care provider considered it a ‘privilege’ for staff to be vaccinated before others in the general population.

At the time, CEO Pete Calveley made an announcement to staff saying getting the vaccine and protecting vulnerable nursing home residents was part of a “moral and ethical duty to do the right thing.”

Justice Maidment said: ‘[Barchester Healthcare] of course he never proposed, for example, vaccination by force.

“During the introduction of the policy, he strove to reaffirm that he recognized that vaccinations could not be compulsory, that vaccination was an individual’s choice, that consent had to be freely given, and that consent for future vaccinations could be withdrawn at any time. “. scenery.

‘Vaccination was not required at this time by law, but vaccination was not physically imposed on any of the claimants.

“While they wouldn’t have judged it a free choice given the obvious implications of a job loss, it was an option they had.”

In 2020, more than 10 percent of the total number of Barchester Healthcare residents died with a recorded cause of covid.

Six staff members also died from causes attributed to Covid.

Among those who claimed unfair dismissal was Ilona Motiejuniene, who provided personal care to residents living in a house in Dagenham, east London.

The court heard that she told bosses she was ‘100 per cent protected’ from Covid as God ‘created the immune system in a perfect way’.

Ms. Motiejuniene refused the vaccine, saying she had “done her own research” and believed that “the vaccine could harm a person.”

He argued that his immune system had been strengthened as he worked ‘hard to improve his well-being’.

The care assistant said she felt discriminated against and harassed after she filed an appeal against her dismissal and was later interviewed by a senior manager about her beliefs.

The panel heard appeals officer Andrea Crowley, Barchester’s regional director, who asked: ‘You want me to reinstate you on the basis that God created us perfectly and you haven’t. Is there anything else?’ and ‘Do you think God will protect you?’

Questions posed to Ms Motiejuniene by Ms Crowley, herself an observant Christian, made her “feel stupid” believing the officer was “inside laughing” at her beliefs.

Another care assistant, Giorgia Masiero, refused the vaccine because she believed that “her body and her immune system could fight any virus,” the court heard.

He also said that he “was on a natural health journey for over 20 years, ate healthy and non-GMO foods” and “had a lifelong spiritual phase.”

As a Catholic, she “opposed any vaccine that used abortive fetal cells and was genetically modified by science” and claimed that some doctors were “silencing” their unconventional views by the “mainstream media”.

Ms Masiero, who worked in Brentwood, Essex, also stated that “as a rational and empowered human being, she felt she was treated like a second-class citizen” for choosing not to get vaccinated.

Laundry attendant Joanna Hussain, who worked in Derby, refused the vaccine on the grounds of “various allergies” and because she claimed her Muslim faith said “killing was forbidden and the vaccine contained fetuses”.

The court heard that she even compared the vaccination program to Nazi medical experiments, sending her employer a copy of the Nuremberg Code, “which had the stated aim of protecting human subjects from enduring the kind of cruelty and exploitation they suffer.” the prisoners in the concentration camps.

Galina Dimitrova, a RN and assistant manager in Hull, ‘considered the vaccines experimental’, while Sammy-jo Chadwick, a home helper who cares for residents with complex needs and learning disabilities, said she had no confidence in the vaccine. . .

All his claims were thrown out. The court dismissed all claims of unfair dismissal.

Ms. Hussain’s and Ms. Motiejuniene’s claims of direct and indirect discrimination based on religion and belief were also unsuccessful, as was Ms. Motiejuniene’s claim of harassment related to religion and belief.