Kaiser Permanente Staff Fired for Refusing COVID Shot Asked to Return
- by Rishma Parpia
- Published
- Informed Consent
Kaiser Permanente, one of the largest Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) in America, is reaching out to health care professionals who were terminated for failing to comply with its mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy. The company is asking former employees to apply to come back, now that it no longer requires employees to receive COVID shots as a condition of employment.1
In October 2021, Kaiser suspended over 2,000 employees who refused to get COVID shots. The company said the suspended employees were required to comply with the mandatory policy before Dec. 1, 2021 or they would be fired. At the time, Kaiser stated:
More than 92 percent of our employees have been vaccinated—and the number continues to grow. As of October 4, just over 2,200 have not responded to our vaccine requirement and have been put on unpaid administrative leave across the country.2
It is unclear exactly how many Kaiser employees lost their jobs for refusing to comply with the deadline to get the COVID shots.
Kaiser Drops Its COVID Vaccine Mandate
In a letter dated May 17, 2024, Kaiser Permanente wrote to previously terminated employees explaining that, due to changes in the federal, state and local vaccine requirements and for other reasons, the company’s mandatory COVID shot policy had been revised effective Feb. 1, 2024. The letter stated that COVID shots were no longer required as a requirement of employment and, although it is not a requirement for working at Kaiser Permanente, employees would still be required to verify their COVID vaccination status annually.3
The letter further stated:
We understand that your employment may have ended at Kaiser Permanente because of your non-compliance with the Vaccine Policy. Given the revision to the Vaccine Policy, we wanted to inform you that you are eligible for rehire with Kaiser Permanente for open and available positions for which you are qualified if you chose to reapply (unless you are ineligible for rehire for other reasons unrelated to the non-compliance with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate). You may search for open and available positions here. We appreciate your prior service to Kaiser Permanente and its members and patients, and we encourage you to apply for open positions.4
Tens of Thousands of Kaiser Employees Strike Due to Staffing Shortages
In October 2023, exactly two years after the 2,000 Kaiser Permanente employees were suspended for refusing to comply with the COVID shot requirement, 75,000 employees of the company picketed outside their local health care facilities coast to coast for three days in a collective effort to express frustration over staffing shortages and how it is negatively affecting current employees and the quality of patient care. The strike included a wide range of health care workers, including nurses, ultrasound sonographers, respiratory therapists, emergency department technicians, and housekeepers.5
The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions said that the strike was the “largest work stoppage of health care workers in U.S. history.” Lorena Jackson, a Kaiser employee who works in as a scheduler in primary care said:
We’re short-staffed and patients have to wait more than a month to be seen. By then, you’re either feeling better, dead, or you have to pay more money out-of-pocket to visit urgent care.6
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