Hospital Fires 50 Employees Over Refusal To Get Flu Shots

This poses an interesting question…

A midwestern hospital chain called Essentia Healthcare has fired 50 employees over their refusal to get flu shots.

According to this:

A Midwestern hospital chain fired more than 50 of its nearly 14,000 employees for refusing to get a flu shot.

Essentia Health introduced a mandate requiring all of its employees to get vaccinated against the flu, whether or not they work in one of its clinical facilities in Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Ohio.

None of those states legally require healthcare workers to get flu vaccines, which reduces the flu’s prevalence by between 40 and 60 percent, according to the CDC.

The hospital wants to protect their patients from the flu…which I understand. The flu can wreak havoc on an already-weakened immune system.

On the other hand, should an employer be allowed to FORCE employees to inject something into their bodies?

Some of the fired employees are fighting back:

At least two groups plan to take action against the healthcare network.

Sharon Beaulieu worked for Essentia as a medical record clerk, until the company fired her last Friday.

Her former employer called her back in to say that she had a shot at keeping her job, if she qualified for a medical or religious exemption from the new policy.

Beaulieu went back to her office, and filled out the exemption paper work.

‘I just wrote “N/A” on everything [and] sent them a letter that that’s not what I’m claiming as exempt; I’m going to claim this is a human rights violation,’ she says.

In fact, Beaulieu has gotten a flu shot every year until now.

‘It’s never been about the vaccine,’ she says, ‘I just don’t feel that anyone as a right to tell me what to inject into my body or not, that’s what it boiled down to for me.’

Does it make a difference that she has no “real” reason to refuse the shot? She’s protesting being forced to get the shot… not the shot itself.

I GET it… but I would have just gotten the flu shot.

Beaulieu, 68, recalls getting emails notifying her that she would be terminated if she did not get vaccinated, beginning about a month ago. Her supervisor spoke to her once, asking if she intended to get the shot.

Essentia told her she could come back to work today, and she suspects she’ll find out later whether or not she’s been terminated for good. Beaulieu is not optimistic, and she says she will not get the shot under any circumstances.

As a clerk, Beulieu says she makes $15 an hour.

‘Not enough to afford a lawyer,’ she says, half-jokingly.

Hmm. Again, I’m torn. I probably would have just gone with the flow on this one… Especially since she ALREADY gets a yearly flu shot.

If anything, she changed her routine in order NOT to comply with the request… that seems kind of dramatic to me… but again. I do understand her concern.

A nurse’s union is ALSO upset about this… For union-y reasons more than anything.

Now, the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) is also taking action. The union filed an unfair labor relations complaint against Essentia at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The flu shot mandate ‘violates the contract that the nurses have with the employer because it introduced a policy without
bargaining and the contract expressly says that if you’re going to introduce something new, you have to bargain,’ says Rick Fuentes, a communications specialist at the MNA.

He says that the union attempted to bargain with Essentia on November 7.

The employer ‘had no intention of negotiating,’ he says.

I DO think it makes sense for nurses to get flu shots… for both their own health and that of their vulnerable patients.

Essentia has held its ground, arguing that it is acting in its patients’ best interests.

‘Essentia Health cares for vulnerable patients every day. Immunization significantly minimizes the risk of patients contracting influenza while under our care,’ says Dr Rajesh Prabhu, an infectious disease specialist and patient quality and safety officer.

And yes, the flu IS a big deal… according to the CDC between 140,000 and 170,000 Americans have been hospitalized from flu-related issues since 2010, and “as many as 56,000 may have died of the illness in the same time period.”

The flu shot reduces cases from 40 to 60%.

So what do YOU think?