Health Freedom Defense Fund (HFDF) is coordinating and underwriting a Disney television employee’s lawsuit, suing the company detailing severe discrimination and harassment tied to her decision not to get the COVID-19 vaccine as required by a company mandate. The lawsuit details an intolerable workplace environment, including anti-religious and political bias, tied solely to the worker’s declination of the vaccine.
Pamela Petroff, an employee at 20th Television Animation, a unit of Disney Television Studios in Burbank, CA, alleges in her suit that her conscience-based decision to decline the COVID-19 vaccine triggered a series of illegal and discriminatory actions. The suit also details the publicly stated bias of her supervisor, Disney producer Kara Vallow, against Christians, Republicans, and those who choose not to be vaccinated against COVID.
“Disney has never required that individuals get a shot to work for it,” stated Scott Street of JW Howard Attorneys, HFDF’s legal team. “It never even required such medical information before the COVID pandemic, recognizing that California law prohibits employers from conditioning employment on medical conformity.”
Among other things, Disney has threatened Ms. Petroff with termination and denied her work opportunities, including remote work, that it makes available to others. She was also subject to escalating personal harassment and ordered to remove the American flag from a flyer because “the flag could offend people.”
This harassment began only after Petroff, a Christian, cited her religious beliefs, along with bona fide personal medical information, as her reasons for declining the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Although the CDC and other public health officials have changed their tune about COVID, companies like Disney are still enforcing their unprecedented mandatory vaccination policies, especially against people who have religious and medical reasons for declining the shots,” HFDF president Leslie Manookian said. “Nobody should be forced to violate her conscience to keep her job.”
Petroff’s complaint also highlights the significant personal bias that Ms. Vallow has against Republicans, Christians, and the unvaccinated.
For example, following a sentence in a post littered with f-words telling people to “…GET THE F__ING VACCINE YOU F___ING F__KS,” she adds, “As for the unvaccinated: Unfriend them, don’t talk to them, don’t hire them. The woods is where they live now.”
The lawsuit seeks to overturn Disney’s mandatory vaccination policy and prevent Disney from firing Petroff, plus compensatory and punitive damages.
The case, Petroff vs Vallow, Disney Television Studios Inc. and The Walt Disney Company was filed in California Superior Court in Los Angeles County.
