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Jewish woman claims she was forced into quitting her job at the T for refusing to get Covid-19 shots
By adamg on Thu, 10/17/2024 - 9:46am
A former MBTA employee who says she was forced to retire in 2022 after the T denied her request for a religious exemption from Covid-19 shots, is suing the agency for lost wages, lost retirement benefits and punitive damages.
Judith Kidd, who says her faith in God means she does not ingest any potentially harmful substances, including Covid-19 vaccines, filed her suit in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston in August, alleging employment discrimination and retaliation in and violation of her religious-freedom and employment rights. The MBTA, however, moved yesterday to have the case, which alleges a specific violation of the federal civil-rights act, to federal court in Boston.
In her suit, Kidd, who worked in equipment purchasing, charges the T could have provided reasonable accommodations for her religious beliefs by letting her continue to work from home and to let her take weekly Covid-19 blood tests to prove she remained Covid-free. Its refusal to do so amounted to "constructive discharge" - or basically forcing her to quit.
Her complaint does not specify the specific writings in the Hebrew bible that led to her beliefs, but uses an argument similar to those of Christian workers who have sued over alleged First Amendment violations related to Covid-19 shots:
On or about October 7, 2021, Ms. Kidd applied for religious accommodation from MBTA's Policy through an electronic form. Among other things, Ms. Kidd stated "The Holy Scriptures I believe in instruct me to stand against any non-biblical system that strips me of the freedom to determine what is done to my body, to include the preservation of my own life, if I have reason to believe that someone or something could cause undue harm."
Ms. Kidd offered to continue to work remotely as she had done for two years at the time of her request and offered to submit to weekly blood tests to prove she is not Covid positive.
In a follow-up conversation on or about November 15, 2021, Ms. Kidd explained to MBTA personnel that when she was 17 years old she was in a serious car accident, spent four months in the hospital, and miraculously survived. Since then she has put her trust in God to heal her and guide her in any medical decisions. Further, Ms. Kidd stated that she will not put something into her body that is not healthy and will not do her body well. She puts her faith in God to inform her in these decisions, and concluded through study and prayer that she should not take the Covid-19 vaccine.
Ms. Kidd converted to Judaism in 1985 and has been a devout practitioner since then. Her faith is an integral part of her daily life, guiding her decisions and practices.
Ms. Kidd's religious beliefs include a strong faith in God's protection and healing power. She attributes her good health and ability to heal from injuries to her faith in God and her practice of eating natural foods.
Her complaint alleges the T denied her request and then, on Feb. 7, 2022, her appeal of its denial. She said she then decided to quit, rather than await firing, to preserve some of her retirement benefits. However, she charges that because she was forced into this decision one year before she would have been fully vested in the T's retirement system, the T should pay her what she would have gotten had she taken the shots and stayed at her job.
Kidd is seeking, at a minimum, $168,000 in lost wages to date, $151,000 in "reasonably anticipated lost wages" and $264,000 in lost retirement benefits.
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 Complete complaint | 118.74 KB |
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Comments
Nothing 'unhealthy'
"Further, Ms. Kidd stated that she will not put something into her body that is not healthy and will not do her body well."
So she doesn't drink alcohol? Coffee? Carbs? Sugar? Should be easy to dismiss this lawsuit based on this alone.
She doesn’t even breathe….
…. MBTA air.
So, she's a virgin in both the ...
Digital, penile and silicon persuasions?
Cool, Jan.
A Denomination of One (1) Woman
I think this line from the complaint speaks volumes:
It sounds like she's not part of any temple, congregation, havurah, shul, synagogue, or any specific tradition or denomination. I am confident that the vast, vast majority of them would have nothing to do with this piece of garbage and her self-centered, offensive, heretical beliefs.
In the past and in the present…
… some of them would stone her, burn her on the stake, shun her, etc.
All the MBTA did was fire her.
Why does that matter?
Does collective belief in a bad idea make it a good one?
No.
But in the eyes of the law, it may make it part of a religion whose lunatic adherents qualify for protection simply because they are an established and/or minority group rather than some singular lunatic with no claims to legitimacy.
Why is it your job to judge
Why is it your job to judge her own faith, call her "garbage" for her beliefs?
These folks
Because it is people like this who...
- Spew enough hate for a small city
- Spend their life preaching to others about how God is good, yet follow very little of Bible themselves
- In fact, I find most of these types have never read the bible cover-to-cover and pick N choose what beliefs/passages from the Bible they want to believe in.
And finally...
- They use their weirdo beliefs to as a cover or alibi for anything that others would not agree with. Case in point.
If this was science, we'd call this junk science, but in this case, its garbage beliefs instead.
Look, I'm all for personal spirituality. But there's a fine like between personal spirituality and just pulling random crap and calling it a religion. This person is hiding behind their 'beliefs' so she can justify being a fool for rejecting a covid shot so she can win a lawsuit. Nothing more, nothing less.
Praise the Lord
God made the vaccine available to you, you idiot.
“Ms. Kidd's religious beliefs
“Ms. Kidd's religious beliefs include a strong faith in God's protection and healing power.“
She is all set then. God will heal her hurt feelings and protect her bank account.
Kidd you not.
Case closed.
The question that needs to adressed
Did the T allow other workers such as bus drivers, train drivers and police to be exempt from the mandatory vaccine policy. The T will have to release the numbers of employees terminated for refusal to take the vaccine. If no cops, bus drivers or other union workers were terminated she will win her lawsuit.
I would guess none were made exempt.
But I think her lawsuit hinges more on her personal religious beliefs.
She is on a mission from God.
They did not
There were at least two fairly senior people in regional positions at DOT who retired rather than get vaccinated or fired. That was an option if you were vested in the pension benefits and of age to receive them.
Note that this was a statewide executive order covering all state employees. Very few exemptions were granted for any employee in any agency at any level, and the vast majority were medical ones (e.g., documented allergy to vaccine components).
You turned up your nose at God’s vaccine.
God is not interested in your lawsuit. She says you’re on your own now, Kiddo.
How fucking insane is this?
So...they didn't fire her. She quit. So, her accusations regarding retaliation already have ZERO merit.
And I'm pretty sure every single case law in this area has said "the health crisis is/was dire, so balanced against your singular religious demand, you lose" and they accommodated by giving her a path to request exemption and review and even appeal...and after that if they say you don't have a compelling reason not to get the vaccine you lose...so the lawsuit fails on "lack of accommodation" too.
Her lawyer is some off-shoot of some Ohio group that claims to be all about defending vaccine mandates for COVID...so I'm guessing they went fishing for her as a client to help start their Boston office.
Send them back to Ohio, please.
But to the point of her own insanity...the MBTA has like the *easiest* pension package in the world (10 years of service! TEN!)...and rather than get the vaccine and go ONE more year, she quit and then filed this lawsuit about it?
Holy nutballs! What an absolute loon!
Point of Information
That is the state's pension rule, not the T's.
All state workers come under the same system. Under that system, you also have to be 60 years old to receive a pension.
It ain't much, either - like 20% of the average of the last 5 years of pay at 10 years. It goes up with more years in.
If you started before 2012, you have to be 55 years old to draw a pension, but you still have to have enough years in to get anything close to enough to live on.
She will be or was refunded the amount she contributed over that time.
Incorrect
Anyone hired since July 2023 only has to reach 55 and have 10 years in.
The MBTA does NOT function by the state's pension rules. It has its own and is negotiated separately from the state's.
Regardless as to how little or most that she'd have gotten, she basically took a HUGE hit to leave before 10 years...but if she'd just gone the extra 12 months she'd have gotten a full pension even if it wasn't a big pension (hell, she may have even been able to get a string of warnings for not complying with the COVID policy for the entire 12 months and STILL retired without a shot in her arm for all we know).
I don't think quitting should invalidate her complaint
She was going to lose her job because she was being forced to do something she claims to think is wrong. Quitting in the face of an unjust firing would, at least to me, fit within the definition of constructive dismissal.
That said, I don't think her firing would have been unjust, so her complaint should fail, just not because she happened to quit when she thought she had no other choice.
Not unjust
The only leg she's got to stand on for constructive dismissal is the EEOC complaint that she was being discriminated against (which will fail as they ALL have). A reasonable person wouldn't call needing to be vaccinated to be the creation of a intolerable working condition...considering how many people have gotten the vaccine just fine, some because of work mandates. So, it fails the first prong of the EEOC test for constructive dismissal (IANAL tho).
Yah that is weird
Kinda weird that if she actually quit. I don't understand what planet she has any standing on.
Wouldn't she need to be fired to... Be forced out?
What a kick in the teeth.
One year before she was vested. What a kick in the teeth. Reasonable accommodations were available. Are we not “the liberty people?”
Would her case have set off a landslide of pretenders to an abstemious faith demanding exemptions from the state?
While vaccines prevent the greater harm of to prevent, or blunt infection and communication, they do some harms: anaphylaxis, site of injection, trick the body into mounting an immune response, aren’t there cardiovascular effects, et cetera?
Read for comprehension, toots.
She quit rather than be fired.
Also note: THIS WAS AN ALL EMPLOYEES MANDATE. People were warned far enough ahead to know what they needed to do. Some worked through the system, did not get the desired result, then retired or quit. It was clearly a condition of employment and there was more than enough time to comply or leave.
She made her choices - absolutely no sympathy for her lunacy.
The only people who received accommodations were people who had documented medical issues that contraindicated vaccination, and people who had been on record from the pre-pandemic times about their religious issues.
Please stop spreading spurious rumors about "vaccine effects". You know full damn well how to look up the facts or should learn.
Don’t make it fair though.
It doesn't make it fair though. Uniformity is not necessarily fairness.
Also, you’re either reflexively, strategically, or programmatically coloring my comments as misinformation, they’re not. There are side-effects, not cuckoobird, conspiracy-theory side-effects, but she had enough to hang her hat on. I was knocked on my ass by the latest vax.
There are horrible and horribly misguided people who promulgate actual misinformation for power and profit. As a matter of being responsible, patriarchal, patronizing, are we supposed to sing from the absolutely no side effects hymnal? No, the truth and reason is our ally.
Fair? She was treated fairly.
Vaccination was a condition of employment.
Every state worker had to get vaccinated, period.
She was told what would happen if she didn't get vaccinated and quit before she could be fired. She was treated like every other state employee.
She got all her pension equity back.
Just because she made up new rules that her purported skydaddy gave her from on high just for this vaccine and only for this vaccine doesn't mean she wasn't treated fairly.
You have a very bizarre concept of fairness. Take your antivax nonsense and think about how "treated like she was told she would be treated and like everybody else was treated" is somehow unfair.
lol
noted
More like….
… her foot in her mouth.
She was free to quit and she did. Now she regrets it. Too late.
I still feel bad for her.
I still feel bad for her.
That's a YOU problem.
That's a YOU problem.
Those who complied with the mandate would be treated unfairly if every nutjob got to make up religion to avoid a common sense vaccine mandate.
I don’t.
I feel bad for every person who suffered or died from Covid especially if contracted from a person who was not vaccinated for stupid and selfish reasons or anyone who cared about them or anyone who was afraid to go out due to risks because so many anti vaxxers were out there hurting people.
I feel a tiny bit bad for her for being a pompous attention seeking idiot with an imaginary friend.
But God is looking out for her, or so she claims, so she’s got more than most.
I do too...
...as I feel badly for anyone who's suffering from harmful delusions.
But I don't feel as bad for them as I do for those whom they harm.
If her deity put before her a
If her deity put before her a choice between her faith and the benefits of her employment, and she chose her faith, it seems likely her deity would find it a little weasely that she's now trying to get the benefits, too, effectively finding a loophole around the test of faith. Seems like a dangerous game to me, but I'm just some person on the internet.
If she's doing this because she needs the money then I do sincerely hope she can find the cash elsewhere.
Can we excommunicate her?
Please?
Hoc non potest (not possible).
She is her own Pope.
No statement from a rabbi, no
No statement from a rabbi, no scriptural texts explain her personal beliefs: If I recall correctly, the religious exemption has specific requirements to be considered valid.
Regardless of which court gets the case I don't see any pathway forward for her to win her case.