The lawsuit by several employees challenging Henry Ford Health System’s vaccine mandate was withdrawn by the plaintiffs on Friday prior to a video conference scheduled before U.S. District Judge Terrence Berg.
It had been filed earlier in the week seeking a temporary restraining order in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan to prevent termination due to the employees’ vaccination status.
Kyle J. VonAllmen, the Clarkston attorney who filed the case, had no comment on Friday afternoon.
Henry Ford Health System had set a Sept. 10 deadline for all employees, volunteers and contractors to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Henry Ford released a statement on Friday saying that no employee was terminated. But an employee who has not received at least one dose of a vaccine or does not have a documented appointment for a first dose by midnight, Sept. 10, or does not have an approved exemption, will face suspension. The suspension will be in effect until Friday, Oct. 1. During these three weeks, the team member can get vaccinated. Once they receive one dose of vaccine, they may return to work. If they remain unvaccinated on Oct. 1, they will voluntarily resign. The statement also said that even if people voluntarily resign, they’ll have the option to re-apply for employment at Henry Ford should they get vaccinated at a later date.
The health system had announced the vaccine mandate on June 29. On Friday they reported that at least 95% of their workforce is either in compliance with the requirement (92%) or has taken their first dose (3%). They will continue to work with employees who are hesitant about the vaccine in an effort to change their minds.
The motion to withdraw the case on Friday morning came hours after President Joe Biden ordered sweeping new federal vaccine requirements for as many as 100 million Americans — private-sector employees as well as health care workers and federal contractors — in an all-out effort to curb the surging COVID-19 delta variant on Thursday night.
Because the Henry Ford lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice, it could be revisited in the weeks to come depending on how the U.S. Department of Labor handles the President’s orders.
The defendants in the case were the Henry Ford Health System; Wright Lassiter III, president of HFHS; and Robert G. Riney, chief operating officer for HFHS.
Henry Ford was the first health care system in Michigan to mandate vaccination.
(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)
