Care worker fired for refusing Covid jab because she’s vegan loses tribunal

A former care worker who refused to have the coronavirus vaccine because she claimed she was ethically vegan has lost her tribunal case.

According to The Times, Sunrise, a care home in northwest England, fired Tracy Owen on November 2021.

The government had mandated that all Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered care home staff in England must be fully vaccinated against the virus by that month.

But Owen, according to tribunal records, objected. She said that she should be exempt from the jab because the shot had been tested on animals.

Owen was fired from her post ‘in the absence of any exemption’.

She lodged a complaint against Willow Tower, a company that owns the care home, alleging that the company discriminated against and harassed her for being an ethical vegan.

A 2020 case ruled that ethical veganism is a philosophical belief that is protected by law against discrimination under the Equality Act.

Ethical vegans, like dietary vegans, eat a plant-based diet and steer clear from products derived from or that exploited animals, according to the Vegan Society.

But the philosophy extends beyond diet and includes ensuring no animal cruelty is involved in clothing, entertainment, cosmetics and hobbies, among others.

In court, however, Owen struggled to show this was the case for her, The Times reported, with a judge saying that being a dietary vegan and an ethical vegan are two different things.

The court heard how Owen’s man criticism of having the Covid-19 vaccine was the ‘experimental’ way it was made, rather than it being tested on animals.

Judge Rachel Mellor said the claimant struggled to provide ‘much detail’ about her beliefs.

Asked if she eats honey or ever wore wool, she shrugged, the newspaper said.

‘There was a paucity of evidence upon which I could conclude she genuinely holds a belief in ethical veganism,’ she judge told the hearing in Manchester.

‘I accept she follows a vegan diet, and she avoids using some products that are not vegan. However, I cannot conclude that she genuinely holds a belief in ethical veganism.

‘She gave no examples of ways in which her daily life is structured to adhere to her belief. She gave me no examples of travel, clothing, holidays whether she ate honey or figs, relationships for example.

‘It was only when it was pointed out to her that she said she did not wear leather, but she did not expand on that and shrugged when she was asked about wool.’

The Sunrise care home first mandated staff to have the jab in June 2021 after a patient’s family members raised concerns.

Bosses told Owen that if she didn’t have the vaccine, she would be ‘re-deployed’ in the kitchen and laundry department instead.

By November 12 of that year, when the vaccine mandate came into effect, Owen was handed a pink slip ending her time at the home.

The court chucked out Owen’s unfair dismissal claim, ruling that her veganism did not count as a protected characteristic.

Mellor added: ‘She did not explain how she went about ensuring she was following a vegan diet, how she checked her products, what she did if she was around someone else who did not eat vegan food, for example.

‘If it was a genuinely held belief, I would have expected that to exercise her more than it apparently did in the evidence I have seen.’

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