This is a landmark legal outcome, and I hope that it leads to more cases being settled to the advantage of workers punished for refusing employer mandates for the experimental COVID vaccines.  Dr. Bryam W. Bridle writes on the Covid Chronicles Substack site:

Liberty Counsel settled the nation's first classwide lawsuit for health care workers over a COVID shot mandate, for more than $10.3 million. The class action settlement against NorthShore University HealthSystem is on behalf of more than 500 current and former health care workers who were unlawfully discriminated against and denied religious exemptions from the COVID shot mandate. The agreed upon settlement was filed today in the federal Northern District Court of Illinois.

As a result of the settlement, NorthShore will pay $10,337,500 to compensate these health care employees who were victims of religious discrimination, and who were punished for their religious beliefs against taking an injection associated with aborted fetal cells.

This is a historic, first-of-its-kind class action settlement against a private employer who unlawfully denied hundreds of religious exemption requests to COVID-19 shots.

The settlement must be approved by the federal District Court. Employees of NorthShore who were denied religious exemptions will receive notice of the settlement, and will have an opportunity to comment, object, request to opt out, or submit a claim form for payment out of the settlement fund, all in accordance with deadlines that will be set by the court.

As part of the settlement agreement, NorthShore will also change its unlawful "no religious accommodations" policy to make it consistent with the law, and to provide religious accommodations in every position across its numerous facilities.

Employees who were terminated will have the opportunity to reapply for their jobs and retain their seniority.

While this is an important positive step, it leaves unprotected those people who refused vaccination on grounds other than religious beliefs, for instance concern about the safety of the new pharmaceuticals using a radically new approach — mRNA — without undergoing the normal testing applied to new drugs.  Whatever happened to the notion that medical decisions are properly made by a patient in consultation with her doctor?  Wasn't involuntary testing of drugs considered a war crime following World War II?

Nonetheless, congratulations to Liberty Counsel and the members of the class, who stand to each receive $25,000 and the right to their jobs back.

Note: A further recommendation of Liberty Counsel comes from the fact that the radical Southern Poverty Law Center categorizes it as an "extremist" group.