Fired For Refusing COVID-19 Vaccines, Former Medline Employees Sue

CHICAGO — People fired by Medline Industries last year for declining to get a COVID-19 vaccine have filed civil rights lawsuits against the Northfield-based medical supply company.

Seven former Medline employees are filing complaints this month in federal court in Chicago alleging the firm violated the Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Erica Ann Probst, a Columbus, Ohio-based attorney representing more than two dozen ex-Medline employees who were terminated as a result of its vaccine mandate. In addition those who have already filed suit, more than 20 others are engaged in binding arbitration with the company.

"One of the things that was lost during the pandemic was the understanding that individuals maintain rights outside of these mandates, and I do honestly believe, along with my plaintiffs, that these rights were ignored," Probst told Patch.

According to the complaints, Medline issued a vaccine mandate in August 2021 to all its employees who interacted with its customers, giving them about two months to get vaccinated or lose their jobs.

Company officials allowed staff to request a religious or medical exemption to the mandate, but allegedly "denied virtually all" such requests and refused to provide accommodations.

Probst said salespeople who worked remotely throughout the pandemic were required to get vaccinated, while drivers who delivered directly to facilities were exempted from the mandate.

The attorney said she was unaware of any religious exemptions having been granted, and the one confirmed medical accommodation was a temporary one for a pregnant woman.

"'[Medline's] offer to entertain employees’ religious and medical accommodations was illusory," according to the suits. "Instead, [Medline] utilized the religious and medical accommodations to mass terminate unvaccinated employees."

In mostly identical suits, the former Medline employees describe how company officials denied their requests for accommodations, according to complaints filed on their behalf by Chicago-based attorney Ed Fox.

They were all able to work remotely from March 2020 until the time of their termination 18 months later, according to the complaints, five of which were publicly available as of Tuesday.

Tara Herbst, of Sherrill, Iowa, spent about 15 years working for Medline, most recently as an EMS sales representative. About 10 days after the mandate was announced, she requested a medical accommodation due to a prior allergic reaction to a vaccine. A week after that, she submitted a request for a religious accommodation, telling her bosses that she had "sincerely held religious belief against scientific methods that utilize aborted fetal cells and that God created her body which should not be manipulated by vaccines."

Ross Kuns, of Georgetown, Texas, was an acute care sales representative who first started working for Medline more than two decades ago. Three weeks before the vaccination deadline, he told Medline human resources representatives he had "sincerely held religious beliefs that prevented him from receiving a COVID-19 vaccine." A little over a week later, the request was denied, and Kuns was terminated.

Jennifer Radecki, of Belleville, Michigan, worked for Medline for about eight years, most recently working as a skin health sales representative. Her "sincerely held religious beliefs against experimentation on human life and scientific methods utilizing aborted fetal cells" prevented her from getting vaccinated, but she was not provided an accommodation and was fired.

Joshua Rollins, of Acworth, Georgia, spent about seven years working as a physical office sales rep for Medline. He submitted a request for an exemption due to an unspecified permanent physical or mental impairment. After that was denied, he sought a religious accommodation, which was denied the same day it was submitted.

Claude Smith, of Flowood, Mississippi, started working for Medline about 27 years ago, eventually becoming the market director for government accounts, managing a 10-state region. He has a rare immune disorder called Guillain-Barrè Syndrome and provided a note from his doctor who allegedly said he should not receive any vaccine, but Medline never contacted him to discuss reasonable accommodations, according to his suit.

The lawsuits come about five months after another large north suburban employer agreed to pay more than $10 million to resolve a lawsuit over its vaccine mandate.

NorthShore University HealthSystem settled a class action suit on behalf of about 523 past or present employees who were denied religious exemptions from the Evanston-based hospital system's vaccine mandate. More than 200 of those workers received the vaccine after their requests for religious accommodations were denied.

In previous federal civil rights complaints, Medline has sought to use binding arbitration clauses with its employees to resolve allegations of racial and sexual discrimination from employees.

Many Medline employees agree to submit to such arbitration in their employment agreements, which can also prohibit taking part in class action suits.

A suit filed last year by a former director of return goods and cash applications that alleged racial discrimination and sexual harassment by company officials was dismissed earlier this month following binding arbitration, according to court records, which would not reflect any confidential settlement.

And earlier this year, a regulatory specialist who worked for Medline for 13 years said she was fired as a result of the company's "official policy or custom" of discriminating against Black employees. In that case, Leontyne Banks, of Vernon Hills, alleged company officials subjected her to more scrutiny and a greater workload than non-Black employees and that she was "terminated from employment because of the excessive discipline imposed by her supervisors." As of this month, the case remained pending in arbitration.

A Medline spokesperson declined to comment on any of the cases.

Related:

• NorthShore To Pay $10.3M In Class Action Over COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate
• NorthShore, Unvaccinated Staff Agree To Mediation In Vax Mandate Suit
• Private Equity Firms Buy Medline In $34 Billion Leveraged Buyout
• Buyout Firms Prepare Joint Bids For Northfield-Based Company
• Ex-Employee Accuses Medline Of Racial Discrimination, Retaliation