A group of 21 plaintiffs who claim they were fired after seeking a religious exemption from COVID-19 vaccinations have filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Department of Energy’s cleanup contractor at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee.
The former employees of Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR) filed suit against the contractor Feb. 14 in U.S. District Court for Eastern Tennessee, after an unsuccessful attempt to participate in a pre-existing lawsuit on UCOR’s vaccination policy. The plaintiffs said in a filing they were denied either “class action” status or the ability to participate as individual plaintiffs in the case by being litigated by Carlton Speer and others against UCOR.
Despite each plaintiff’s “sincerely held religious beliefs,” their request for exemption was denied, according to the complaint. The plaintiffs deny the exemptions would have caused UCOR “undue hardship” as the contractor claims because the company was already using remote work, mask-wearing and physical distancing.
Also, “UCOR granted to another subset of employees one or more of the same accommodations requested by plaintiffs, including exemption from the vaccine mandate,” within the same fall-2021 timeframe during which it denied those accommodations to plaintiffs, according to the complaint.
The plaintiffs seek compensation for lost income and other damages. They also seek a jury trial. The case was reassigned Wednesday Feb. 21 to U.S. District Judge Travis R McDonough, who is handling other COVID litigation against UCOR, after initially being assigned to U.S. District Judge Katherine Amber Crytzer, according to online court records.
