According to a complaint, three former workers who were fired for refusing to wear face masks and take the COVID-19 vaccine because of their religious beliefs have sued Walt Disney World.
In the lawsuit filed on June 30, Barbara Andreas, Stephen Cribb, and Adam Pajer alleged that Disney had discriminated against them by denying their requests to be exempted from the organization’s rules mandating the vaccination and facial coverings.
According to the lawsuit, Pajer was let go in June, while Andres and Cribb were sacked in March. The trio, who are all ardent Christians, had been employed by the business for seven to twenty years.
Disney’s vaccination requirement was halted in November as a result of Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida legislature restricting corporations’ ability to enforce vaccinations of their employees.
Later, the company decided not to force vaccinated employees to wear masks.
The lawsuit claims that Disney’s ‘augmented protocols’ that were forced on nonvaccinated employees consisted of ‘harsh isolation and restrictions’ that caused ‘serious breathing’ and made it ‘nearly impossible to find a compliant manner and location in which to eat or drink while on shift.’
The suit also states: ‘Disney has brought wonder and magic into the lives and homes of millions,’ but the company has ‘cast itself as the villain’ and ‘a shadow has come over Disney’ during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Adreas, who had worked for Disney for 17 years, had sought a religious exemption, claiming that wearing a facial covering is an ‘affront’ of her Christian beliefs.
‘We live by faith not fear,’ Andreas, who was a guest experience manager for Walt Disney World at the ESPN Sports Complex, said to WESH.
Andreas had filed for an exemption based on her Christian religion.
‘I said, I’m very uncomfortable doing this. Now I’ve been going on four months waiting for an exemption to not only the vaccine but mask-wearing as well, all things that I made clear back in August that were a violation to my religious beliefs,’ she explained.
Disney then adjusted its health and safety rules.
‘No longer was the cloth mask sufficient, now it was an N95 with the word warning written across it,’ Andreas said.
She further argued that because she thinks aborted foetal cells were used to make it, so “participating in a medical experiment, such as covid testing or immunizations,” contradicted her beliefs.
It is false that foetal cell lines were used to create the Covid vaccinations, and they don’t include any aborted cells.
Early on in the development of the Covid vaccine, Pfizer and Moderna, two vaccine producers, tested the effectiveness of their formulations on foetal cell lining.
These procedures utilised foetal tissue from elective abortions that took place decades ago.
Since then, the cells have multiplied several times, and no original tissue was utilised in the creation of these current vaccines.
Disney responded to her request on December 29, saying that ‘after careful review of the information you provided, we are unable to conclude that you are prevented from wearing a face cover due to a sincerely held religious belief, practice or observance.’
‘Religious creed includes my dress and my grooming practices, including what I put on my head or face. Wearing a face covering is an affront of my Christian beliefs,’ wrote one of the former workers.
The employees cited Biblical scriptures in requesting their accommodations in the lawsuit.
Bible references: John 8:32, John 14:6, John11:25, 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, and Ecclesiastes 7:17. He stated that he must care for his body as ‘God’s temple’ and that the ‘truth is through God the Father and his Son Jesus’, such that he is obligated to pursue the truth about what he puts into his body and avoid self-harm or the risk of self-harm. ‘Our bodies were not made by God to put a known poison into it,’ he concluded’, the lawsuit states as justification for not taking the vaccine.
The lawsuit claims that Disney ‘could and should have chosen to accommodate these religious beliefs in practice,’ and that the protocols made it clear the company ‘irrationally’ feared the workers ‘as perpetually exposed or infectious with disease and a perpetual danger to other cast and guests.’
Disney has not responded to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, the former employees are requesting an undisclosed sum of money as compensation for lost salaries, benefits, and legal costs.
According to the lawsuit, each of the fired employees complained about the company to the Florida Attorney General, the Florida Commission on Human Relations, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging discrimination and retaliation as well as a violation of state laws banning mandatory workplace vaccinations.
They say that denouncing the corporation to authorities also resulted in their terminations and are suing under a Florida whistleblower law.