Essentia Health Fires Flu Shot Refusing Nurses

It’s done. 69 employees have been fired from Minnesota based health company, Essentia Health, for not complying with mandatory flu shot rules. As we first reported last week, many nurses and employees were absolutely refusing to receive the flu shot injection, which prompted Essentia Health to set a firing deadline. The November 10th deadline came and went, and the employees have now been fired.

The Minnesota Nurses Association will soon file a grievance over the matter. The association will seek back pay as well as rehire of the nurses and staff that were fired. Many nurses filed religious or medical exemptions, but it appears that Essentia Health disregarded those and proceeded with firings anyway.Essentia has clarified their position on exemptions in the past as “very limited medical and religious exemptions.”

The nurses also claim that they put forth an idea to reward those nurses who did get the flu shot, as opposed to firing the ones who rejected it.

“Essentia Health showed nurses they did not intend to bargain with us in good faith,” Steve Strand, co-chair of the MNA bargaining unit, told Fox 9 in a statement. “We tried to sit down with management, but Essentia executives told us they intend to follow through with terminations and mandatory flu shots regardless.”