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#BoycottHersheys trends after chocolate giant slammed for firing unvaxxed employees

The company is also reportedly asking fired staff to sign a nine-page confidentiality and release agreement

The Hershey Co has been receiving hate comments online after it started firing employees who declined to take Covid-19 vaccines. Not just that, the candy company is also reportedly asking fired staff to sign a nine-page confidentiality and release agreement so that they cannot take legal actions against it.

One such former staff member named Kim Durham said she asked for a religious exemption and was sure that she would get it. She told The Epoch Times, “I really thought I’d be OK. I thought, you cannot question my faith. Nobody can question that.” She noted, “I thought this was behind me until September, when I met with an HR representative. It was an interrogation on your religious beliefs. They twisted your words and tried to put words in your mouth. It was terrible. I was asked such personal questions that had nothing to do with religion.”

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Durham was reportedly notified in November that her request had been denied. The Epoch Times reported that they talked to a few more employees of Hershey, who will soon be out of the company. It stated, “All who were interviewed mentioned being troubled by similar questions during the meetings, usually held with an immediate supervisor and someone from HR, such as: Have you ever been vaccinated? Are your children vaccinated? How do you protect yourself when you leave your home? How often do you go to church? Do you take Tylenol, ibuprofen, Tums, or Midol? If so, how can you say that you’re truly a religious person, because a lot of those medicines also have the same ingredients as the vaccine?”

It has also been said that Hershey has different policies for office employees and factory workers. Office workers apparently either get jabbed or lose their jobs but people working in food production and Chocolate World, the company’s retail outlet stores, have not been not forced for it. Durham said, “We are losing our jobs over this vaccine policy. It’s just wrong that a company can terminate you, and you lose your livelihood. This should not be forced.”

As per reports, around 1,400 workers requested religious accommodation but if anyone got that is not known yet. Durham added: “I know people who got the vaccine just to keep their job. It wasn’t something they wanted to do, but they needed the job. I need a job too. But I’m not going to do something I don’t feel comfortable doing, just keeping my job.”

On its website, Hershey has issued a statement that read, “As an employer, we have an important role to play in helping to end this pandemic, sustaining economic recovery, and ensuring the health and safety of our employees, their families and our communities. We believe vaccination is our best opportunity to achieve these goals.”

It continued, “In August 2021, the Hershey Company established a new health & safety policy requiring full vaccination for all corporate employees working in our 19E corporate office, Tech Center, US commercial sales offices, customer teams, Hershey's Chocolate World Salaried Employees, Amplify, One Brands and Lily’s offices by October 4, 2021. To support this, the company-sponsored multiple vaccination clinics and allowed employees to seek accommodations for religious or medical reasons. The company has engaged in an interactive process with our employees to evaluate when an accommodation is needed.”

“Nearly 98 percent of the teams covered by this policy have become vaccinated. Over recent weeks, separations for a small number of teammates, less than two percent of our corporate and commercial teams who did not get vaccinated, have occurred,” the statement added.

But people on the Internet did not seem convinced by the company’s policy as a critic tweeted, “In spite of SCOTUS ruling, Hershey Co Headquarters in PA is firing all unvaaxed staff. They want them to sign a disclosure that they won’t come back to sue them, and are offering them pay to sign it. The employees refuse. I’ll never visit there again.” Another critic wrote, “Hershey’s FIRES all unvaccinated employees. WTH is wrong with this company?!”

A user said, “Time to #cancel @Hersheys who apparently does not believe in the #Constitution. #BoycottHersheys.” The second user noted, “Time to boycott Hershey too. Requiring vaccine for jobs.” “Mark another company that I and millions of others will not be supporting for not acknowledging their employees' religious beliefs and conscientious objections to a forced invasive medical procedure - Hershey's, you're done,” the third one added.