NorthShore, Unvaccinated Staff Agree To Mediation In Vax Mandate Suit

EVANSTON, IL — A group of former employees of NorthShore University HealthSystem and the Evanston-based hospital conglomerate agreed to a private mediation session aimed at resolving a lawsuit the workers brought last year over their bosses' mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy.

A group of 14 employees identified as "Jane Doe" in court documents, including 11 nurses, a pharmacy technician, a patient access representative and a senior application analyst, filed suit against NorthShore in October 2021 in an attempt to block it from enforcing its coronavirus vaccination requirement.

The workers alleged that their Christian religious beliefs prevent them from getting vaccinated, and requiring them to do so in order to work in a hospital violates their civil rights. U.S. District Judge John Kness initially issued an order blocking NorthShore from firing the workers, but after a December 2021 hearing, he allowed the order to be lifted and an appeals court declined to overturn his decision.

"The parties have agreed to participate in a private and confidential mediation in a good faith effort to reach a mutually agreeable resolution to this matter," according to a a joint motion filed Friday.

The scheduled mediation session comes a week before the deadline for motions on whether to grant class certification to the workers and allow a class action suit to proceed.

Attorneys for the Jane Doe plaintiffs have requested a more abbreviated briefing scheduled in order to allow "several hundred" other employees a chance to join on ahead of the 90-day deadline triggered by "right to sue" letters from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Both sides in the suit called for a status conference in the case to be scheduled sometime prior to Monday, "during which the parties can update the Court about the outcome of the private mediation, and, if the case is not resolved, propose amendments to the current scheduling order to permit the parties to conduct further discovery prior to the class certification motion deadline."

As of January, only one of the employees who brought the suit stilled worked at NorthShore, an attorney for the hospital group said in a filing.

On Monday, a spokesperson for NorthShore declined to say whether any of the plaintiffs still work for the health system. and the lead attorney for the former NorthShore employees did not respond to a request for comment.

Earlier: 13 Of 14 Staff Challenging Hospital Vaccine Mandate Have Left Jobs