A long-time Nike employee was fired after refusing to supply his COVID-19 vaccination records to a third-party verification service used by the sportswear giant. 

Dex Briggs, 53, claims he was terminated from his marketing manager position at Nike headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon earlier this month after a 26-year run with the company - despite being fully-vaccinated against the virus and offering to show bosses his vaccination card.

Briggs, who is married with a son, says he found the company's vaccination verification process too worrying to comply with. It sees vaccination records uploaded to software created by unidentified third-party firm. 

That firm then has permission to share the information with others in an effort to confirm the vaccination, which Briggs - who has previously fallen victim to identity theft - found too great a breach of his privacy to endure. 

'I have my vaccination card. I'm quite willing to show you that. But I'm not willing to give my personal information to this (outside) company, and any other company they want to share it with, without even telling me who they are,' Briggs told The Oregonian.

Nike, which has approximately 14,000 workers assigned to its headquarters near Beaverton, did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment.

Nike announced its vaccine mandate to employees in September. Although the Biden Administration's mandate ordering private firms with 100 or more workers - such as Nike - to order staff to get vaccinated has been struck down, companies can still choose to enact such a mandate themselves.

While it hasn't publicly addressed the policy, internal memos obtained by the newspaper revealed the policy is aimed at getting workers back onto its Beaverton campus.