A veteran waitress at Yankee Stadium has filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn Mayor Eric Adams’ “despicable” vaccine exemption for pro athletes on Friday — as the Bronx Bombers gear up to play their opener against the Red Sox.
Virginia Alleyne’s Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit claims Hizzoner’s exemption for athletes and performers is “arbitrary and capricious” and an “abuse of discretion.”
“For him to allow millionaires to work and to punish the workers who are the lifeblood of this city is just horrendous,” Alleyne told The Post.
“So many workers have lost their jobs, yet he’s rewarding the millionaires because he doesn’t want them coming after him,” she continued. “We are being punished by a blatant and egregious double standard.”
The 57-year-old Upper East Side single mom said she was placed on unpaid leave from her job as a waitress at the stadium’s high-end restaurant Legends Suite Club in September because she is unvaccinated.
Alleyne, who is refraining from getting the COVID-19 jab for religious reasons, called the exemption “despicable” — as she explained why she was filing the suit seeking to overturn the order. She is not seeking any lost wages.
The Upper East Side resident worked at Legends for 17 years, making $400 to $600 a shift in wages and tips combined, she said. Before the pandemic, she regularly worked multiple part-time jobs — one of which she was fired from for being unvaccinated last year.
“I was literally begging for my job and I knew I am not going to be able to take care of my son,” said the mother of a 15-year-old autistic boy.
“I’ve been struggling. I can barely make ends meet,” she said. “Everybody else folded. Everyone chose to make money. I chose to starve because of the principle.”
Adams announced from Citi Field on March 24 the executive order that let athletes and performing artists off the hook from getting the jab, claiming it would help boost tourism.
The vaccine is still mandatory for the rest of the municipal and private-sector employees in the Big Apple. The mandate has led to the firing of over 1,400 city workers.
“Allowing professional athletes and performing artists to work without a vaccine while terminating [Alleyne] and those similarly situated for not receiving the vaccine is unquestionably arbitrary and capricious,” the court papers charge.
The suit also challenges the claim that Adams’ executive order was implemented to ensure New York sports team wouldn’t be at a disadvantage if their unvaccinated athletes can’t play, while visiting athletes with the same vax status can.
“Thousands of firemen, policemen, teachers, sanitation workers, restaurant workers and other private sector workers have been fired as a result of this mandate,” the filing alleges.
“Has the mayor asked the aforementioned terminated NYC employees if they care if the Nets, Knicks, Yankees or Mets are at a competitive disadvantage when they can no longer support their families?”
The court documents state that the exemption “is quite frankly the greatest affront to the NYC workforce since March 2020.”
“The putative class continues to be permanently removed from their employment, with no return date in sight,” the papers say.
The class-action lawsuit, on behalf of Alleyne and “all other individuals similarly situated,” was filed by the so-called “anti-shutdown lawyer” James Mermigis, who is behind a slew of pandemic-related litigation.
“Today is opening day. Everyone will be back at Yankee Stadium except my client,” Mermigis told The Post.
“Fifty thousand fans will be cheering in Yankee Stadium without regard to vaccination status but my client remains unemployed.”
City Hall spokesman Fabien Levy told The Post: “The mayor has said it was in the best interest of the city to make this policy change, and he was well within his authority to do so.
“The Law Department will review the case.”
Legends declined to comment.
