Illinois Hospital Group temporarily barred from placing workers with religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccine on unpaid leave

The Chicago Tribune reports:

A Chicago federal judge issued a temporary restraining order Friday preventing NorthShore University HealthSystem from placing 14 employees with religious objections to getting mandated COVID-19 vaccines on unpaid leave.

There's more:

“They can’t be fired and they can’t be placed on what is effectively, in my mind, unpaid leave,” U.S. District Judge John Kness said during his ruling. “The hospital’s going to have to keep paying them. If you wish to require them to show up to work and use PPE and go through testing because you need the help and you don’t want to pay them to be off site, that’s up to the hospital.”

Imagine that.