A former Allegheny County Department of Health laboratory supervisor who resisted the COVID-19 vaccination on religious grounds and was fired has sued the county on discrimination claims and wants her job back.
Rachel Glenn, who lives in Perry South, filed the complaint in federal court on Tuesday, the same day some 75 Pittsburgh Regional Transit employees filed a federal class-action suit against the authority on similar grounds.
In Glenn’s case, she said the county discriminated against her by refusing to grant her a religious exemption from getting the shot and treated her differently than other employees in a similar situation.
Glenn had been employed by the county since 1993 and said she was most recently the serology lab supervisor since August 2015 until she was fired in December 2021.
The county announced mandatory vaccination for employees in July 2021 and required Glenn to get vaccinated by Dec. 1, 2021.
She objected in October 2021 on the grounds that she’s a Christian and submitted a statement that said she had an “obligation to respect and honor this temporary vessel (her body) because ‘the Temple of God is holy,'” the complaint says.
She said she met with the employee relations coordinator, Ellen Buannic, in late October 2021 but said Buannic never asked about other considerations to address Glenn’s religious exemption request.
Instead, she got a letter saying her request was denied because it would “pose an undue hardship” on the county.
The county set up a due process hearing but she didn’t attend, instead sending a written response to the allegations in which she suggested options to accommodate her request so she could keep working. Among them was continued testing for COVID-19, which was already in place because of the pandemic.
Glenn also said that during the pandemic she had worn a mask, distanced herself from others and submitted to regular testing as requested by the county. She also said her job in the lab requires little interaction with others and that she had been working effectively throughout the pandemic.
But she said the county sent her a letter firing her as of Dec. 1, 2021, because she hadn’t been vaccinated.
In the complaint, Glenn said she follows the teachings of Jesus Christ and argued that “courts are not arbiters of scriptural interpretation” and “neither are employers.”
Glenn is asking for reinstatement, lost wages and punitive damages.
The county said it does not comment on litigation.
Torsten covers the courts for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Reach him at jtorsteno@gmail.com.
