Image Credit: BCBST / Facebook
Press Release –
CHATTANOOGA, TN – A Tennessee federal jury awarded former BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee (BCBST) employee Tanja Benton more than $680,000 after the insurer “did not prove by a preponderance of the evidence either that it had offered a reasonable accommodation to Plaintiff or that it could not reasonably accommodate the Plaintiff’s religious beliefs without undue hardship.”
According to court documents, the jury awarded total damages to Benton in the amount of $687,240.00, comprised of $177,240.00 in back pay damages, $10,000 in compensatory damages, and, by separate verdict, $500,000 in punitive damages. The verdict was filed on Thursday, June 27 and Friday, June 28, 2024.
Additionally, a group of employees terminated by BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee (BCBST) over a Title VII violation regarding religious discrimination pertaining to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate are also in current litigation with the state of Tennessee’s largest health insurer.
A spokesman for the group says after a lengthy investigation process by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) since November 2021, the terminated employees have filed a class action suit in federal court.
Between October and November 2021, BCBST terminated 41 of their employees after BCBST implemented a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for 900 “customer facing roles.” Many of these 900 employees who were NOT “customer facing” were full time telecommuters and had been working from home during the entire pandemic.
The livelihoods of these 900 employees were threatened if they refused to comply with BCBST’s vaccine mandate. Out of the 900, 41 refused to comply with BCBST’s mandate and were fired from their positions. Some still have yet to secure employment.
In October 2021, nineteen employees were terminated. In November 2021, twenty-two additional employees were fired weeks ahead of a Tennessee law being passed to prevent BCBST from moving forward with the mandate.
Many submitted requests for religious exemptions and reasonable accommodations. Rather than provide a reasonable accommodation such as a telecommuting option (an option that was currently in place and was continuing for the entire year) or a testing option, BCBST’s response was that you have 30 days to change your deeply held religious convictions and get the shot, find a new job, or be fired. Requests for religious exemptions were ultimately denied.
For more information on the details of the terminations, please visit the group’s Give Send Go page.
2 Responses
Those that forced people to get the poison jab ought to be brought up on charges like they did to the Nazis after World War 2 at the Nurnberg Trials . Those that forced people to take the jab are murderers and sheep ; they are the kind of people that would have gladly initiated the Holocaust . They , the sheep , march in lockstep with the Communists Party that holds power in the US Government today .
I HOPE this Law suit snow balls into Law suits all over the country for the Damage these companies and/or under the directions of the Fed. Gov. have done under the pretense of power.