Five former Milford hospital employees say they were unfairly fired. What they claim

MILFORD — Five former Milford Regional Medical Center employees are suing the hospital after they were terminated two years ago after choosing to not receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

The case was placed on the running trial list for next April 1, with discovery scheduled to be completed by March 31, according to court filings.

The five former hospital employees — Bethany Taylor, Brenda McGovern, Christina Nadeau, Christine McWilliams and Michelle Lawrence — filed the lawsuit last November. They're represented by McLane & McLane, LLC, of Feeding Hills (a section of Agawam).

Milford Regional is represented by Mirick, O'Connell, DeMallie and Lougee, LLP, which has offices in Boston, Worcester and Westborough.

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The lawsuit was originally filed in the Worcester Superior Court but was later moved to the U.S. District Court.

In their lawsuit, the former employees claim the hospital violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employers from discriminating based on race, religion, sex and national origin and religious discrimination. The former employees are seeking monetary damages, punitive damages, costs and attorney fees.

The plaintiffs' state that damages amount to more than $50,000, according to the civil action cover sheet.

Former employees claim hospital was denying all religious exemptions

According to the plaintiffs' complaint, Milford Regional notified all employees in August 2021 that it would require them to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The hospital announced to employees that they were to either show proof of vaccination by October 2021, or request and receive a medical or religious accommodation.

Employees who sought religious or medical accommodations were required to submit their requests by September 2021.

In Milford Regional's response to the lawsuit, employees who did not get vaccinated by Oct. 1 were put on unpaid administrative leave until Oct. 15, with employment separation occurring that day if no proof of vaccination was provided.

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Milford Regional formed a Religious Exemption Committee to evaluate religious exemption requests.

Three of the former employees — Taylor, McWilliams and Nadeau — said they did not receive the COVID-19 vaccine due to their Christian beliefs.

Specifically, the former employees said in court filings that their religious beliefs precluded them from complying with Milford Regional's vaccination policy because of the connection between COVID-19 vaccines and "the cell lines of aborted fetuses."

"They believe, fundamentally, that all life is sacred, from the moment of conception to natural death, and that abortion is a grave sin against God and the murder of an innocent life," the former employees' complaint reads.

Another plaintiff, McGovern, cited beliefs from the Congregation of Universal Wisdom, stating, "The Congregation of Universal Wisdom obligates its members to place their own spiritual beliefs above those who would dictate the health decisions of others."

Court filings say McGovern sincerely believes that injecting "medication or other matter of substances that defy natural law" into the body is considered sacrilege, according to the tenets of her faith.

The fifth plaintiff, Lawrence, is a member of the Wicca faith and relies on a god and goddess for guidance on decisions that could potentially violate her spiritual beliefs, according to the complaint.

All five plaintiffs' requests for religious exemptions were denied. According to their complaint, the requests were denied because providing the accommodation would be an undue hardship on hospital operations.

In addition, Nadeau, McWilliams and Lawrence alleged they were provided a 15-minute Zoom meeting to discuss the denial of the exemption request with the Religious Exemption Committee, where they were allegedly informed that Milford Regional was denying all religious exemptions on the basis of hardship. Taylor and McGovern allege they were not given the opportunity to meet with anyone on the Religious Exemption Committee, which the hospital denies.

Hospital presents nine defenses to its decision to terminate

Also in its response, Milford Regional admitted to meeting with Nadeau, McWilliams and Lawrence, but denied the the committee was denying every religious exemption request.

According to the hospital's response, after individualized evaluations, it did not grant any of the religious accommodation requests but it did grant "approximately" 13 medical accommodation requests.

Milford Regional offered nine defenses, including that the plaintiffs' damages, if any, resulted from their own conduct; plaintiffs failed to exhaust administrative remedies and/or failed to comply with the procedural prerequisites prior to bringing some or all of their claims; the granted requests would have placed an undue hardship on Milford Regional; and the granting of the requests would have posed a direct threat to Milford Regional's employees, patients, volunteers and staff.

An attempt to get comment from the plaintiff's counsel was unsuccessful.

A spokesperson for Milford Regional said the hospital is unable to comment on litigation matters.

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Former Milford hospital employees claim they were unfairly fired