A gaggle of Radio City Music Hall employees have kicked James Dolan within the chin with a lawsuit — accusing the media mogul of firing them for not complying along with his company’s “unnecessary, draconian” COVID vaccination mandate, The Post has learned.
The five backstage employees accused Dolan-owned Madison Square Garden Entertainment – which runs the famed venue where the Rockettes placed on their holiday spectacular – of refusing to simply accept their “sincere religious and medical objections to the vaccine,” based on documents filed in Recent Jersey federal court this week.
Dolan, who also owns the Knicks and Rangers, is already facing legal revolts from other parts of his entertainment and sports empire. He faces multiple lawsuits for his use of facial recognition technology to ban legal rivals at venues that include Radio City and Madison Square Garden, in addition to a shareholders lawsuit over MSGE’s $900 million acquisition of MSG Networks.
A gaggle of wardrobe dressers at Radio City Music Hall say they were terminated for refusing to stick to MSG’s “draconian” COVID vaccine mandate.Matthew McDermott
The most recent legal fight over the contentious issue of vaccine mandates was filed by Stephanie Marra, Donna Holland, Teofesta Pusillo, Lourdes Garcia, and Kyle Nicholson.
Madison Square Garden and Radio City were amongst scores of entertainment venues throughout town that were forced to shut down within the spring of 2020 because of the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
MSGE required all its employees to not less than get their first vaccine shot before July 12, 2021, and set a deadline of Aug. 21, 2021, to indicate proof of getting each jabs, the lawsuit said.
James Dolan also faces lawsuits from lawyers and critics who say they were banned from MSG-run venues that used facial recognition to bar their entry.Bloomberg
Radio City Music Hall doesn’t require guests to indicate proof of vaccination, though private firms are legally permitted to demand employees get the shot.Angela Cranford/MSG Entertainment
All five refused on religious grounds and were shown the exit. Nicholson was terminated on July 12, 2021, while Marra, Pusillo, and Garcia were fired on July 23, 2021, based on legal documents. Holland lost his job on Oct. 15, 2021. Marra, Holland, Pusillo and Garcia – all Recent Jersey residents – were wardrobe dressers. Nicholson was a stagehand.
“Madison Square Garden Entertainment selected to disregard the rights of its employees, disrespect their deepest beliefs of conscience, and harass anyone who dissented from its vaccine mandate,” Lexis Anderson, a Los Angeles-based attorney who’s representing one among the plaintiffs, told The Post.
The lawsuit accused MSGE and MSG Sports – which owns the Knicks and Rangers – of getting “disparately applied their mandate” after making “exceptions for certain groups of individuals,” based on court documents.
The fired employees cited “sincere religious objections” to the vaccine of their lawsuit.AP
The lawsuit specifically cited the Rangers for allowing players to take the ice. The “team was considered fully vaccinated at 85%. This allowed an automatic exemption for players [who] objected to the forced vaccination policy,” the lawsuit stated.
Meanwhile, MSGE employees “weren’t given the identical option but were as an alternative threatened and harassed,” based on the lawsuit.
“This case seeks legal treatment for the discrimination and coercion these individuals experienced by the hands of the entertainment titan,” Anderson said.
An MSGE spokesperson declined to comment.
The five plaintiffs also appealed the matter to the Recent York State Division of Human Rights, alleging “discrimination on the idea of faith and a perceived disability,” based on court papers.
NYSDHR dismissed all of their complaints.
The Post has sought comment from the NYSDHR.
