Six former employees of a US railway company received compensation of more than $1 million each for losing their jobs because they did not get vaccinated against COVID-19, reports NBC News.
A federal judge ruled in favor of the six workers at the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency in California, awarding them a total sum of 7.8 million US dollars (10.8 million Canadian dollars) ranging from 1.1 million from US dollars (1.5 million Canadian dollars) to 1.5 million US dollars (2.1 million Canadian dollars) per person.
They had refused to receive the anti-COVID vaccine for religious reasons. One of them had worked for the company for more than 30 years.
The judge recognized that the employer had refused to accommodate its employees, for example by changing their tasks or their schedules, even though 70 of them had received a vaccination exemption.
Of these, six workers continued to refuse to receive the vaccine, which resulted in them being fired or forced to leave their jobs.
