Federal jury deliberates over BART workers fired due to COVID vaccine mandate
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- It was a COVID-19 vaccine mandate that sparked outrage among hundreds of BART workers.
Now, a federal jury will decide if BART has to pay up to six former employees who claimed religious exemptions but say they were not accommodated by the transit agency, and subsequently lost their job.
UPDATE: BART workers fired due to COVID vaccine mandate to get over $1M each, federal jury decides
In 2021 BART workers reached out to ABC7 News Reporter J.R. Stone about the COVID-19 vaccine mandate that went into effect. Hundreds of employees felt like their vaccine exemption requests weren't taken seriously by BART. Those that Stone talked with in 2021 have been involved in settlements, and now some other workers are seeing their case before a jury.
"I'm not giving in and there's a number of us that have the same opinion. We're not giving in, we're holding ground, holding firm on what our beliefs are," Albert Roth said in 2021.
"I've been homeless before and this is what I told the BART board, ya know. I'm not afraid to be homeless again, it is what it is, but now they're tapping into people's rights and I'm not going to stand for that, not on my watch," Rhiannon Doyle said in 2021.
VIDEO: Unvaccinated BART employees react after mandate exemptions denied
BART did initially grant vaccine exemptions, but plaintiffs argue, they weren't accommodated. What does that mean? An accommodation could have meant that they were able to work from home or get Covid tested regularly. They argue none of that happened and they lost their job.
There are two phases to this federal trial and the first finished up this past Friday.
The verdict form given to jurors asked, "Has BART proven that the plaintiff could not be reasonably accommodated without undue hardship?"
MORE: COVID vaccine refusal 10th highest reason for job cuts in 2021, report says
The jury came back unanimously saying that "NO not proven by BART." In all six cases they sided with the former employees.
Now the jury will decide if each of the six individuals did in fact have a religious conflict with the vaccine mandate.
Some that ABC7 News spoke with believe that this BART case is similar to a COVID-19 vaccine mandate case in Tennessee. In that trial the jury awarded more than $600,000 to the plaintiff who did not get the vaccine despite a mandate to do so.
BART is a transit agency that is already between $350 and $400 million in the red, but BART's board of directors did vote eight to one for the vaccine mandate in 2021. The jury is now deliberating and could come back Wednesday with a verdict.
