The Louisiana Supreme Court has upheld the COVID-19 vaccine mandate Ochsner Health has imposed on health care workers at its Louisiana medical facilities, concluding the mandate does not violate privacy rights in the state constitution.
Chief Justice John Weimer authored the unanimous Jan. 7 opinion finding that 39 plaintiffs employed by Ochsner have no constitutional claim to block the mandate’s provisions based on privacy rights. Such constitutional limitations only apply only to government actors, not private employers, the high court said.
“This matter is resolved by the application of the employment-at-will doctrine, which is rooted in Louisiana Civil Code article 2747,” the opinion says. “This provision has been uniformly held to reflect employment at will – which means an employer is at liberty to dismiss an at-will employee and, reciprocally, the employee is at liberty to leave the employment to seek other opportunities.”
The Ochsner mandate required the health care workers to get vaccinated by Oct. 29 of last year or face disciplinary actions, such as mandatory leave time or even termination. But the policy also allows exemptions for employees who provide valid religious or medical reasons for not getting the vaccine.
The president and CEO of Ochsner Health, Warner Thomas, expressed satisfaction with the court ruling.
“Ochsner Health remains committed to protecting the health and safety of our patients, team members and everyone across the communities we serve, and this decision supports our right to enact policies that protect patients and staff at our facilities across Louisiana,” Thomas said in a statement emailed to the Louisiana Record. “As we are currently experiencing a new surge due to the Omicron variant, we continue to keep the health and safety of our patients and team members a top priority.”
In making its decisions on the vaccine mandate, the Supreme Court overruled a Second Circuit Court of Appeal decision supporting the employees and affirmed a decision by the Third Circuit Court of Appeal backing the employer.
Certain state and federal statutes and constitutional provisions do limit the employment-at-will doctrine, but none of those exceptions apply in the Ochsner case, according to the opinion. Legitimate exceptions include employee rights relating to protections based on gender or race, the opinion says.