For California Workers my experience and research have produced viable options for recipients and non-recipients of the so-called Emergency Use Authorization, EUA, COVID-19 Vaccines manufactured by Johnson&Johnson-Janssen, Moderna and Pfizer-Biontech. The two agencies that can remedy the aggrieved employees are the California Department of Fair Employment & Housing and the California Labor Commissioner.
I believe employees that were inoculated under the threat of adverse employment action can file with the DFEH. Non-recipient employees that were subject to adverse employment action because of a vaccine mandate can file.
One legal action both classes of employees can pursue is a PAGA class action with an employment lawyer as the employee witnessed the employer violate multiple statutes of the CA Labor Code such as denying Paid Sick Leave to suspended employees. There is a limited time statute of one year on PAGA actions. A common illegal practice during vaccine suspensions was to deny all forms of regular pay. That’s another violation of the California Labor Code.
The inoculated employees can exercise their right file a wage claim for unpaid work. While an employee can take off a mask or PPE while off duty an employee can not extract the COVID-19 Vaccine from his/her blood. In my opinion the employee has been forced to participate in clinical research of experimental gene therapy products. There is precedent for this argument. There have been many wage claims filed by caregivers with the California Labor Commissioner that argue the live in-caregiver is in a 24/7 cycle of being “on-duty”. There is a three year statute to file wage claims with the California Labor Commissioner.
In the event an active employee files with either the DFEH or Labor Commissioner there are statutes for retaliation with both agencies. The Labor Commissioner does have a retaliation investigation unit for various causes of discrimination. The DFEH and Labor Commissioner strategies can be initiated “in pro per” without an attorney. The Labor Commissioner in San Francisco gave me an estimate of 3-5 years to get a hearing.
Thank you for reading.