A religious-freedom group has filed a last-minute class-action lawsuit to try to save the jobs of thousands of city employees set to be fired Friday for missing the deadline to get vaccinated. The suit, filed in Brooklyn federal court on Thursday, claims the city mandate constituted a “war on the unvaccinated” and violates workers’ “fundamental religious and constitutional rights.
“Many of these employees face a termination date of February 11, 2022, which is tomorrow,” said the Thursday filing. “The mass termination of City employees who have refused to obey the various vaccine mandates because of their firmly held religious beliefs is a tremendous injustice that urgently needs to be addressed — and immediately.”
The suit was filed by New Yorkers for Religious Liberty on behalf of 13 named city workers — including FDNY Capt. Brendan Fogarty — who face “immense pressure” to choose between their faith and their jobs, court papers say. The suit sought to be a class-action case because of the nearly 4,000 employees at risk of losing their livelihoods, the group said. “Plaintiffs respectfully ask that the Court act immediately to enjoin the Defendants from terminating thousands of their religiously-observant employees, who have thus far received intolerant and unconstitutional mistreatment of their religious accommodation requests,” the lawsuit says.