The Court of Appeals of the State of Oregon recently held in Trumper v. Women’s Healthcare Associates, LLC that an at-will employee could not bring a wrongful discharge claim where she did not challenge the lawfulness of her employer’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate and otherwise failed to identify a job-related right that entitled her to ignore the mandate.

Quick Hits

• The Oregon Court of Appeals held that an at-will employee could not maintain a wrongful discharge claim where she did not challenge the legality of her employer’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate and failed to identify a job-related right enabling her to refuse compliance.
• The court affirmed that HIPAA did not prevent the plaintiff from disclosing her medical diagnosis to her employer, as required by the vaccine mandate.
• The decision underscores that wrongful discharge claims are narrow.

Christina K. Trumper worked for Women’s Healthcare Associates, LLC, (WHA) as an accounts receivable clerk in 2021. That same year, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) promulgated a rule requiring all healthcare personnel working in healthcare settings to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or provide documentation to establish a medical or religious exemption. Under that rule, a medical exemption had to be corroborated by a medical provider certifying that the person seeking the exemption had a physical or mental impairment based on a specified medical diagnosis that limited the person’s ability to be vaccinated. Healthcare employers...

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