FREDERICTON, New Brunswick (LifeSiteNews) — An unvaccinated firefighter is suing the City of Fredericton for apparently misinforming him of his pension benefits if he quit over the COVID vaccine mandates.
According to a lawsuit filed December 14, former Fredericton firefighter Gregory Billings is seeking compensation for having lost his pension after he was apparently told that he would only be eligible to receive the pension if he resigned his position but not if he was fired.
“The plaintiff relied on the misrepresentations of the City of Fredericton that retirement was being offered to him and suffered damages as a result through loss of his severance pay and loss of a portion of his pension,” the claim, obtained by CBC News, read.
According to the suit filed in the Fredericton Court of King’s Bench by Billing’s lawyer Jonathan Martin, Billings is requesting $280,000 in compensation and damages.
Billings resigned as captain of the New Brunswick city’s fire prevention division after 21 years of service in December 2021 because he was unwilling to receive the experimental COVID shot.
According to his claim, in September 2021, Billings was sent home for refusing to comply with masking and COVID testing regulations for unvaccinated staff.
In October, the department told Billings that if he continued to refuse the regulations, they would begin to search for his replacement as the union had already approved his dismissal. The next day, the department published a job listing for Billing’s position.
Later the same month, the fire department changed their vaccine policy, stating that anyone who was not fully vaccinated against COVID would be suspended without pay or terminated.
According to the lawsuit, as Billings began to investigate his options, he was “fraudulently or negligently misinformed” by city human resources staff that if he was fired, he would not be able to receive severance compensation.
On the other hand, the staff apparently told him that if he resigned, he would be eligible for his retirement severance and pension benefits. Accordingly, Billings determined to resign from his position in December.
“The plaintiff was subsequently informed in January 2022 that he was not eligible for his severance pay or deferred pension,” the claim states.
“The City of Fredericton has breached the contract by refusing to provide the plaintiff with his retirement benefits and pension as promised in their agreement, and the plaintiff has suffered damages in the amount of his lost pension and severance as outlined in the collective agreement,” the claim continued.
According to the claim, Billings was also abandoned by his union, which refused to grieve his wrongful dismissal. The claim explained that if the union had defended Billings, the department would have likely reinstated him with or without pay until the vaccine mandate was listed just months later.
Billings is hardly the first Canadian to seek compensation for losing his job over COVID vaccine mandates.
In December, a Canadian arbitrator ruled members of a local union who worked for courier giant Purolator, and then lost their jobs because they chose to not get the COVID shots, must receive compensation as the mandates were not “valid.”
Similarly, last October, LifeSiteNews reported that an arbitrator in Saskatchewan ruled in favor of two oil refinery workers who were discriminated against at their workplace for not complying with COVID dictates.