According to The Hollywood Reporter, ABC might face religious discrimination claims from former General Hospital crewmembers after being fired after refusing the COVID-19 vaccination.
What’s Happening:
- Two former General Hospital crew members have sued ABC after being fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccination.
- This week, a Los Angeles judge found that James and Timothy Wahl may have had “sincerely held” beliefs that ABC should have allowed an exemption when the policy was put into place.
- ABC previously managed to defeat a similar lawsuit from Ingo Rademacher being let go from General Hospital by refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.
- In 2022, like several other studios at the time, ABC had a vaccine mandate.
- James and Timothy Wahl Both worked in the special effects department on the show and sued ABC after the requests for religious exemption were denied.
- ABC said that “Wahls did not have genuine religious beliefs and that, even if they did, it could not have accommodated them without undue hardship.”
- According to the suit, the Wahls mostly worked behind the scenes, tested regularly for COVID-19, wore a mask, and did their best to socially distance themselves from the cast.
- While the main suit will continue, the court found that ABC does not have to force a claim for invasion of privacy. The Wahls also dropped claims for disability discrimination, retaliation, and wrongful termination last year.
What They’re Saying:
- “This decision is consistent with other cases in which courts have found that actors cannot be accommodated with pre-vaccine protocols because the nature of their work requires close, unmasked contact with other performers,” the judge wrote in the order.
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