A former environmental worker for Los Angeles County is suing her ex-employer, alleging she was wrongfully denied a religious exemption to taking the previously mandated coronavirus vaccine and forced to resign due to a hostile work environment, a year before the vaccination policy was lifted.
Belinda Larsen’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges religious discrimination, retaliation and failure to accommodate. She seeks unspecified compensatory damages as well as attorney’s fees.
A county spokeswoman said County Counsel had no comment on the complaint filed Monday.
Larsen was hired by the county in September 1991 and at the time of her resignation was an environmental health specialist. The county’s mandatory employee coronavirus vaccination policy was enacted in August 2021 and workers were told to provide proof of their vaccinations by Oct. 1 of that year.
Larsen’s suit contends the regulation was not science-based and did not take into account the natural immunities of those who had the virus before or the fact that the injections’ effectiveness waned over time.
When Larsen filed for a religious exemption in September 2021, management demanded more information that infringed on her medical privacy rights, the suit states. Larsen also stated that she relied on herbs and organic food for healing and that vaccinations she received as a child were decisions made by her parents and occurred before she became and adult, the suit further states.
Management left its decision as “pending,” then retaliated against Larsen by taking away overtime work she had done for years and excluded her from team meetings and holiday gatherings that were open to her vaccinated colleagues, the suit states.
After Larsen saw her unvaccinated co-workers be terminated, allegedly without due process, she became “terrified that she would be fired at any moment” and lose her lifetime medical benefits, the suit states. Larsen’s skills and work fit the niche of government work and was not conducive to private employment, according to her complaint.
Larsen’s work environment was so intolerable she took early retirement in late March 2022 with a much lower retirement package, according to the suit, which further states that the county’s COVID-19 vaccination policy was lifted in early April 2023.
In addition to lost wages and benefits, Larsen has suffered severe mental anguish and emotional distress, the suit alleges.