Ex-city employee files discrimination suit

Man claims his religion prevents him from getting vaccinated, which led to his firing

A former San Jose city employee is suing the city, alleging he was fired from his job as an informational technology manager over his religion, which he claims prevented him from getting vaccinated.

Eran Amir, who filed his lawsuit in Santa Clara County Superior Court on May 11, claims he was discriminated against and retaliated against for his religion after he refused to comply with San Jose's vaccine mandate and submit to twice-a-week testing.

The mandate went into effect Oct. 1, 2021, but a last-minute deal struck by the police union after more than 100 officers threatened to quit allowed employees the option of taking a COVID-19 test twice a week if they refused to get vaccinated. The deal by extension applied to all city employees and those who hadn't already been granted religious or medical exemptions also had to serve a weeklong unpaid suspension.

In October, Amir was one of three city employees who served a 40-hour suspension from their jobs for refusing vaccinations.

After his suspension, he made a “sarcastic joke” to his manager over Microsoft Teams — a messaging platform — saying that he had gotten COVID-19, according to the lawsuit. Several hours later, his manager said he shouldn't be in the office if he had COVID-19, prompting Amir to explain he was “just kidding.”

During an Oct. 27 city hearing, his suspension was upheld, Amir told city officials that he had finished writing up his religious exemption and planned to submit it soon. The following day, he was put on a one-week paid suspension, was locked out of his work account and was unable to access the religious exemption form, the lawsuit said.

Following the one-week paid suspension, he received a subsequent unpaid one-week suspension and a notice of termination for refusing to get tested twice a week, as well as for the joke he made to his manager.

He was terminated Nov. 15 before he submitted a religious exemption.

According to the lawsuit, Amir originally “hesitated to submit it because pending litigation, frequent changes to the city, county and state mandates, and the fact that the policy forced employees to get tested on

their own time,” caused him “to believe the city's vaccination policy was not legal.”

According to one of his lawyers, Oshea Orchid, a partner at the Los Angelesbased law firm Public Employees Legal LLP, Amir told city officials several times that he had written up the exemption, but the city didn't take the form.

Orchid added that she

doesn't believe San Jose's vaccine policy is legal because it requires unvaccinated employees to get tested twice a week on their own time — without compensation.

“Just logistically it was much harder to get tested after work because that was a time when the facility would be more busy, getting on the bus would be more

busy,” she said of Amir, who doesn't own a car and had to take public transit to county testing centers.

As of April 8, 239 city employees remain unvaccinated, according to city spokesperson Demetria Machado.

Of the city's 6,950 employees, approximately 97% are vaccinated.

Machado said that 236

employees have received exemptions for medical or religious reasons or have a pending exemption request.

Two employees who didn't comply with the testing requirement for unvaccinated individuals were fired.

San Jose City Attorney Nora Frimann could not immediately be reached for comment.