He'd worked there 33 years - and was rehired just months after the sacking
He worked for the same health service for more than three decades. Then he refused a COVID-19 vaccine.
A long-serving patient care assistant at East Metropolitan Health Service (EMHS) in Western Australia has lost his bid to bring a disability discrimination claim after arguing that his unvaccinated status was itself a disability under federal law.
The Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia threw out the application on October 5, 2026, finding the worker had no reasonably arguable case - the threshold needed to get the matter to trial.
The facts were largely undisputed. In September 2021, as Western Australia enforced mandatory vaccination for health workers, EMHS directed all staff in tier two health facilities - essentially frontline sites - to be partially vaccinated by November 1, 2021, and fully vaccinated by December 1. Staff had to show proof of vaccination or a valid medical exemption.
The worker did neither.
Instead, from November 2021, he took three months of accrued long service leave, followed by two weeks of annual leave. By the time that leave ran out, EMHS placed him on unpaid leave and launched a disciplinary process for failing to comply with the direction.
His lawyers pushed back. Among the arguments was a novel one: because an unvaccinated person is statistically more likely to contract COVID-19, and because the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 defines "disability" to...
A Wixom, Michigan, business accused of making false statements to obtain a loan has agreed to pay a settlement of just over $1.5 million after it was sued by the federal government, according to th...