Covid 19 Mandate
On July 26, 2021, California Department of Public Health ("CDPH")issued the "State Public Health Officer Order of July 26, 2021" with the subject of "Health Care Worker Protections in High-Risk Settings." Then, on August 5, 2021, the California Department of Health issued a second order "State Public Health Officer Order of August 5, 2021" with the subject of "Health Care Worker Vaccine Requirements." The CDPH also issued "Public Health order Questions & Answers: Health Care Worker Protections in High-Risk Settings" (last updated September 3, 2021) and the Public Health Order Questions & Answers: Health Care Worker Vaccine Requirement" (last updated September 14, 2022).
Both the August 5 mandate and the Q&A on vaccine requirements confirm that the Jylt 26, 2021 Order remained in effect at the time of the adverse employment actions taken by employers across the state of California. To this end all of the orders are in effect and work together.
The CDPH Orders clearly contemplate individuals will be eligible for and receive religious and medical exemptions and reasonable accommodations to the vaccination mandate. The August 5 Order then identities the accommodations for employees exempt from the vaccination for religious or medical reasons stating testing requirements and other non-pharmaceutical interventions required of workers who are not fully vaccinated. The July 26, 2021 Order provides specific accommodations for individuals not fully vaccinated to include testing and masks.
California
Declare Truth is supporting the clients of attorney Dan Watkins of Watkins & Letofsky, LLP in California. The battle they are aggressively fighting involves representing approximately 1000 employees who have sincerely held religious beliefs in opposite to the COVID shot, and who have been fired or have been threatened to be fired for refusing to take the COVID shot. We are representing employees for religious discrimination in more than 35 cases against their employer including large health care organizations, hospitals, cities, counties, school districts, etc. In addition, we recently filed our first lawsuit in Texas on these same issues.