|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Nearly 100 BART employees have quit or been fired in recent months after failing to comply with the agency’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate, amounting to roughly 2% of BART’s workforce.
As of March 2, nearly 3,900 BART employees have proven their full vaccination status, roughly 99% of the transit agency’s workforce.
Another 89 employees did not comply with the agency’s vaccination mandate, which went into effect Dec. 13, 2021.
Alaric Degrafinried, BART’s assistant general manager for administration, told BART’s Board of Directors Thursday that 51 of those former BART workers left the agency voluntarily, while 38 were dismissed involuntarily.
“Those are individuals … that decided to go through a hearing here at BART and then at the conclusion of that hearing, we had to separate from those individuals,” Degrafinried said of those who were fired for non-compliance.
The headcount of BART’s workforce has declined by roughly 250 employees since March 2021 due in part to the vaccination mandate, an incentivized retirement program and nearly 200 other miscellaneous resignations, retirements and involuntary dismissals.
Nearly 300 former BART employees took an early retirement package last year. Of those, BART plans to backfill 150 openings while eliminating the remaining 137, saving the agency roughly $22.5 million.
In total, BART has hired 320 new employees since last March and lost 571. According to Degrafinried, BART has some 700 positions that are not currently filled.
“We’re about flat from March of 2019 to present,” Degrafinried said of the agency’s workforce. “We’re definitely currently operating at a four-year low with regard to a headcount right now.”
The article did not mention anything about those were fired WITH an approved religious exemption. Also about how 75+ employees were granted a RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION but 0 were accommodated. DISCRIMINATION at its finest!
There are no major religions that forbid covid vaccinations. The religions that do prohibit vaccination are tiny splinter groups. None of those groups have a presence in Northern California. To claim a religious exemption, it must be a sincerely held religious belief. This is demonstrated by proving your membership in a religious group and the doctrine that would provide the exemption.
The BART workers could provide neither, so they’re clearly attempting to cloak their political agenda as a religious belief. I’m glad BART did the right thing and fired them. A public employee should not be making political statements on my dime.
@MikeDavis. I want to clarify that BART HR approved 75+ religious exemptions. Meaning they interviewed them and deemed that they IN FACT had a sincerly held religious belief against the vaccination. Maybe you should educate yourself about the topic on EEOC.gov. 75+ employees had APPROVED religious exemptions from HR. None were accommodated..
Peery – Im assuming you have a source for your claims considering they do not jive with any publicly available information? Not to mention, they make no logical sense. How exactly does an approved exemption to the agency’s policy result in being fired for failing to adhere to the policy they were exempt from? Basic logic would tell you they were not approved for an exemption or the exemption was revoked. The article even specifies the impacted employees had a hearing to discuss the situation and make their case. Under your claims, how exactly do you see that playing out if they were approved for an exemption?
Bart – you need to get vaccinated or we are going to fire you.
Plague rat – I have an exemption.
Bart – Its been revoked.
Plague rat – But Trump said drinking bleach, shoving a lightbulb up my behind, and taking horse dewormer would work!
Bart – Pack your stuff, youre fired.
Plague Rat – But Jesus?
Bart – No