Lawyers representing a half-dozen employees at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee who refuse to take a COVID-19 vaccine are expected Tuesday to argue in federal court that contractor UT-Battelle could rely on options other than a vaccine mandate to protect workers during the pandemic.
Had UT-Battelle (UTB), the joint venture between the University of Tennessee and Battelle that runs the lab for DOE, been willing it could have “identified countless other ways to accommodate Plaintiffs while also protecting public health—mask wearing, telework, periodic antibody testing, and periodic COVID testing are just a few options,” according to a brief filed Friday.
“Plaintiffs do not claim that UTB must allow them to work without any mitigation measures,” according to the brief filed Friday in support of a preliminary injunction. The plaintiffs also question the contractor’s assertion that an executive order by the administration of President Joe Biden forces it to mandate vaccination for all employees. The plaintiffs also dispute if COVID testing would be cost-prohibitive.
On Oct. 15, U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley in the Eastern District of Tennessee issued a temporary restraining order blocking the lab from placing the vaccine-wary employees on unpaid leave. The parties were scheduled to argue for an injunction today during a hearing in Knoxville, Tenn.
Attorneys representing the lab contractor are expected to introduce several affidavits and cite orders in other federal courts rejecting restraining orders in anti-vaccination cases at Houston Methodist Hospital and Indiana University. That is according to the preliminary exhibit list filed with the court Monday.
The defendants’ lawyers are also expected to file a compiled group of tweets by Dr. Jayanta Bhattacharya, a Stanford University School of Medicine professor and public critic of vaccination orders, cited prominently in the plaintiffs’ filings.
Other anti-vaccine mandate lawsuits are underway against contractors at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
