Steamship Employees Fired After Refusing COVID-19 Vaccination

Fourteen Steamship Authority employees have been terminated after refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

The Steamship had adopted a mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy earlier this year that required employees to be vaccinated by February 15. The terminations were first reported Thursday by the Martha's Vineyard Times.

Steamship Authority communications director Sean Driscoll told the Current that the 14 employees who were fired represent less than 3 percent of the boat line's workforce of 525 staff members.

"Currently everyone who is working for us either has a vaccine or has been granted an exemption (of which there have been fewer than 10 issued in total)," Driscoll said in an e-mail to the Current. "All new employees, and those who are seasonal and will return to work this summer, will also have to comply with the policy."

The Steamship Authority had been facing a lawsuit by a group of employees in February who refused to get vaccinated. Their request for a religious exemption was denied by the Steamship, which they said constituted a violation of their First Amendment rights of religious freedom. But a federal judge recently denied their request for an injunction in the case that would have halted the Steamship's vaccination mandate.

Driscoll said most of the terminations occurred after that ruling on March 10.

To further encourage its employees to get vaccinated, the Steamship Authority had been providing an incentive of up to $500 per staff member to get the shot.

"We issued 551 vaccination incentive payments totaling $254,400," Driscoll said. "In context, we were spending $12,500 a week to have medical professionals screen vessel employees prior to starting their shift, so from a cost-benefit analysis, the payback period for offering the incentives was less than half a year."