An Australian teenager who was allegedly fired from her job at a pizza shop for getting the COVID-19 vaccine is taking her former boss to the Human Rights Commission.
Georgia Smith, 16, from the Gold Coast, was working at Ned Kelly's Pizza and says they declared her a health risk after receiving her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
She says she was told the spike proteins would purportedly spread into her co-workers' bodies if she came into contact with them. The teen says she was then told she wouldn't be receiving any shifts because she had been vaccinated.
"It still is hard to deal with, I lost a good job, I lost the friends I had in there," Smith told 9 News.
Law firm Maurice Blackburn reached out to Smith and her family after hearing she'd lost her job this way, and they're now lodging a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission. They allege that her former bosses discriminated against her on the basis of disability.
"The employer imputed a disability to her, they've said that because you're vaccinated you've got a condition and you're a risk to us because of the fact you're shedding particles," Giri Sivaraman from Maurice Blackburn says.
Ned Kelly's Pizza denies the allegations, saying in a statement on Facebook Smith was fired because the shop was struggling financially - not because she was vaccinated.
"We sent [Smith's dad] a 14-point text to his phone number and explained our concerns about our business suffering financially including that takings had halved in eight weeks, lockdowns were continuing, we had to face reducing staff and we were reviewing our financial situation," their statement says. "We do not agree with any discrimination against anyone - there is already way too much division between one another in our society."
According to 9 News, Smith's ex-boss has previously shared anti-vaccination content online.
