EEOC COVID Vaccine Settlement Highlights Risk in Questioning Employees’ Religious Beliefs

July 24, 2024

What's New

The settlement agreement in EEOC v. Hank’s Furniture, (N.D. Fla. July 15, 2024), prohibits an employer from concluding that a religious belief is insincere because the employer thinks it may be inaccurate or unfounded. The settlement also prohibits the employer from requiring an employee who requests a religious accommodation to show that his or her religious belief is an official tenet or endorsed teaching of any religion. In addition, the employer will pay the employee $110,000—$88,000 for back wages and $22,000 for compensatory damages.

This case involved an Evangelical Christian employee who sought a waiver from her employer’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) said she sincerely believed that the vaccine manufacturers developed their products from aborted fetuses’ cell lines and that injecting these vaccines would defile her body and the bodies of her future children.

What It Means

This settlement illustrates the potential risk for an employer that questions whether an employee who asks for a religious accommodation has sincere religious beliefs.

What You Should Do

While EEOC guidance permits an employer to make a limited inquiry so it can understand the details of a request for a religious accommodation, an employer should exercise extreme caution before challenging an employee’s sincere religious beliefs. It generally makes more sense to take the request at face value and assess it through the interactive process to determine whether the religious belief or practice can be accommodated and whether it poses an undue hardship.

CWC members can consult with CWC staff through MemberAssist at [email protected].

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