Newshub can reveal up to 200 Defence Force staff could be sacked if they don't get vaccinated.
A number of them are taking the Defence Force to the High Court over the directive to get the jab or be discharged.
Many of the Defence Force's finest are facing unemployment for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine, including senior officers and medics.
"They've served in harm's way. They've been in operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, East Timor, the Solomon Islands," says lawyer Christopher Griggs.
Griggs is representing 12 military personnel legally challenging a Defence Force directive made in July to get vaccinated - or get out.
And he says there are many more NZDF employees who aren't going to court being dismissed.
"Somewhere between 100 and 200 members of the armed forces… they're essentially being tossed aside like rubbish."
It's not just their jobs on the line.
"They're being thrown out of their military housing," Griggs says.
Griggs is arguing the Chief of Defence Force, Air Marshal Kevin Short, didn't follow the statutory process when making the vaccine directive. And that he should have created an order which gives unvaccinated employees better rights.
"With current process that's being followed they don't have the right to a fair trial and they don't have the right to appeal, and that's why we're going to the High Court," he says.
Vaccine mandates for non-border workers is a legal grey area. One lawyer believes the Defence Force directive could be justified under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
"There's a strong argument that they're not at fault, they're in fact looking after their employees, their staff, and making sure they are safe and able to carry out duties, assignments and orders," says human rights and armed forces lawyer Micheal Bott.
And that dismissal could be expected.
"If they can't be redeployed anywhere else then arguably there is a case saying they've got to go," Bott adds.
The Defence Force refused Newshub's request for an interview, saying because the matter before the courts it can't comment.
A High Court hearing is scheduled for next month.
