The women say they are taking a principled stand against forced injections
A New Jersey social service agency has suspended three workers without pay for a second week over their continuing refusal to get a flu shot or wear a surgical mask in the company's Burlington County headquarters, the employees said.
The women, who work in the accounting or billing departments at Lutheran Social Ministries of New Jersey, said they were informed of the decision when they returned to work Tuesday morning following their first weeklong suspension.
Megan Duncan, Alanda Watson and Denise Mercurius said they expected to be fired for violating the vaccine-or-mask policy, which the agency put into effect this year, citing the need to safeguard its elderly and disadvantaged clients.
RELATED: Office workers who refused flu shots suspended without pay
Instead, the women were issued a second unpaid suspension, they said.
"I'm assuming they want us to quit so it doesn't look like they fired us," said Mercurius, 45, of Maple Shade. "But I'm not doing that."
The employees are among a growing number of workers in the health care industry across the country facing termination for defying mandatory flu-prevention policies, which have proliferated since passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. The law, colloquially known as Obamacare, ties some Medicare funding to employee vaccination rates in hospitals and other healthcare settings.
A Google street view image of the Burlington Township headquarters of Lutheran Social Ministries of New Jersey Duncan, Watson and Mercurius say they are deeply opposed to mandatory injections and that they are wary of the flu vaccine, which has been shown to carry serious side effects in very rare cases, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The women say they have no contact with clients, and they argue that because the flu vaccine varies widely in its effectiveness from year to year, unmasked employees who receive the shot are equally at risk of spreading the virus.
Though they would prefer to keep their jobs, they say, they have characterized their decision as a principled stand against an employer's intrusion into private lives.
"You have to stand for what you believe in," said Duncan, 30, of Howell. "We just think this is not right."
RELATED: They said no to company-mandated flu shot and now fear firing. Here's why.
Lutheran Social Ministries employs about 630 people statewide at its various facilities, including two nursing homes, a day treatment center for the homeless, an immigration center and shelters for battered women and at-risk children.
Duncan, Watson and Mercurius are among 32 people who work in the Burlington Township headquarters. While few clients come to the office building, about half of the employees regularly visit the agency's other facilities, raising concerns about cross-contamination, the agency's president, Colleen Frankenfield, told NJ Advance Media earlier this month.
Frankenfield has declined to comment about specific employees.
Duncan, a billing specialist, said the surgical masks are not a reasonable alternative to the flu shot because they are ostracizing and impractical.
"Some of the people I speak to on the phone are like 100 years old," she said. "They're not going to be able to hear me. It will prevent me from doing my job."
The vaccine-or-mask policies have become increasingly contentious. In some states, groups representing nurses have filed suit over the mandates, saying they should not be forced to accept the vaccine or wear a mask when they're not in contact with patients.
The CDC recommends the vaccine for all health care workers, as do most doctors' groups and the New Jersey Department of Health.
Mark Mueller may be reached at mmueller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarkJMueller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.