A care home worker who was sacked for refusing to have a coronavirus vaccine has lost an employment tribunal in Leeds.
Cheeryn Allette, who worked at Scarsdale Grange nursing home in Sheffield, declined to be jabbed when the management at the family-owned establishment made vaccination mandatory prior to the statutory ‘no jab, no job’ rules.
Allette initially told her bosses she “didn’t trust” the vaccine after reading internet conspiracy theories, saying it was “unsafe” and that the government was “lying about its safety”.
In a follow-up meeting, she said her objection was that it was against her “Rastafarian beliefs” to take any form of “non-natural medication”.
The employment tribunal ruled that Allette was fairly sacked after finding no reasonable excuse for her clear and categorical refusal of a vaccine.
It decided she had taken her stance due to an unsubstantiated belief there was a conspiracy, rather than religious belief, and it dismissed her “cynical” claim of religious discrimination.
The tribunal was told that Allette had worked as a care assistant at Scarsdale Grange, for more than 13 years.
She was dismissed for gross misconduct and her appeal - where she returned to stating that vaccine safety was her concern - was rejected.
