A former cook for Google North America Inc.’s Spruce Goose facility in Playa Vista is suing the company, alleging management changed course after initially granting him a religious exemption to its coronavirus vaccination mandate and fired him in 2022 for not getting the shot.
Maurice Hall’s Santa Monica Superior Court lawsuit alleges he is entitled to at least $5 million in compensatory damages, plus punitive damages. His causes of action are for religious discrimination, failure to accommodate religious practices, harassment based on religion and retaliation for requests for religious accommodation.
A Google representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the suit brought Tuesday.
Hall was hired in October 2018 to work as a cook at the Spruce Goose facility, where management imposed a mandatory employee coronavirus vaccination mandate in August 2021, according to the suit. Receiving the COVID-19 vaccines directly opposes religious beliefs held by Hall as an evangelical Christian, so he asked that he instead be allowed to wear a face mask and gloves and submit to regular coronavirus testing, the suit states.
Hall’s exemption request was approved two months later, but in November 2021 management told him that his accommodation was being reviewed and ordered him to stop working pending their final decision, according to the complaint.
“Subsequently, defendants harassed (Hall) on the basis of his religion and his requests for accommodation,” according to the suit, which further states that a supervisor repeatedly asked the plaintiff if he had changed his mind about his religious beliefs.
Hall remained off the job and was fired last March, which he attributes to his religious convictions and requests for accommodations, according to the suit, which further states that the plaintiff has suffered financially and emotionally as a result of losing his job.