Tag: religious beliefs

Religious Objections to COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates

Accommodating Religious Objections to COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates

On October 25, 2021, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission updated its COVID-19 technical guidance to address employees’ religious objections to vaccine mandates. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects workers from religious discrimination. The law also grants employees the right to seek accommodations of their sincerely held religious beliefs, practices, and observances. Given the proliferation of legally mandated and voluntarily imposed workplace vaccine mandates, many employees have sought exemption from the requirement on religious grounds. While acknowledging that employers generally must consider employee requests for religious accommodations, the EEOC emphasizes that employees are not automatically entitled to an exemption based on a religion-based objection.

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Employee Requests

The new EEOC guidance confirms that an employee must ask for a religious exemption to the vaccine mandate before the employer must consider offering one. Employees do not have to use any “magic words,” such as “religious accommodation” or “Title VII,” but must affirmatively express a conflict between their religious beliefs and being vaccinated for COVID-19.

Support for Religious Objections

The EEOC confirms its historical view that employers should generally assume an employee’s asserted religious belief is valid. But, with a sufficient “objective basis,” an employer may question the religious nature or sincerity of an asserted belief. In that case, the employer may engage in a limited factual inquiry and seek additional supporting information.

Religious Nature

Religious beliefs may be distinguished from purely personal, political, economic, or social views. However, Title VII protects even nontraditional religious beliefs. If there is uncertainty as to why the professed belief is religious in nature, the employee may be asked to explain.

Sincerity

Usually, it is difficult to challenge the sincerity of an employee’s professed religious belief. However, evidence undermining an employee’s credibility can be evaluated. For example, the EEOC notes the following potentially relevant factors:

  • prior acts by the employee inconsistent with the professed belief;
  • whether the accommodation sought is a particularly desirable benefit that is likely to be sought for non-religious reasons;
  • timing of the request (e.g., following an earlier request by the employee for the same benefit for non-religious reasons); and
  • other information suggesting the accommodation is not sought for religious reasons.

The EEOC cautions that an individual’s sincerely held religious beliefs can change over time. And “[a]n employer should not assume that an employee is insincere simply because some of the employee’s practices deviate from the commonly followed tenets of the employee’s religion, or because the employee adheres to some common practices but not others.”

Undue Hardship

As with disability accommodations, employers need not grant religious accommodations that would pose an undue hardship. Nonetheless, employers are advised to “thoroughly consider all possible reasonable accommodations, including telework and reassignment.” What constitutes an undue hardship will vary between workplaces and potentially even between positions within the same organization.

The EEOC asserts that “[a]n employer cannot rely on speculative hardships when faced with an employee’s religious objection but, rather, should rely on objective information.” The following factors may be relevant in weighing an exception to a COVID-19 vaccination requirement:

  • nature of work location (indoors or outside)
  • type of work setting (solitary or group)
  • degree of interpersonal interaction
  • number of employees seeking a similar accommodation

Individualized Analysis

Employers should evaluate each religious accommodation request on its own merits. Thus, some employees with religious objections may be excused from the vaccine mandate while others are not.

In each case, an employer may consider:

  • type of workplace
  • nature of the employee’s duties
  • number of employees who are fully vaccinated
  • how many employees and nonemployees enter the workplace
  • the number of employees who would need a particular accommodation

An employee’s personal religious beliefs may affect what accommodations are possible for them compared to others.

Alternative Accommodations

Employers are not limited by the specific accommodation an employee seeks. They may consider any reasonable accommodation that would resolve the conflict between the vaccination requirement and the employee’s sincerely held belief without causing an undue hardship. If more than one accommodation meets that standard, then the employer should consider the employee’s preferred accommodation. But the employer retains the right to choose the accommodation granted even if different than the employee’s preference.

The EEOC suggests, “If the employer denies the employee’s proposed accommodation, the employer should explain to the employee why the preferred accommodation is not being granted.”

Reconsidering Accommodations

The EEOC notes that the accommodation process is a “continuing obligation that takes into account changing circumstances.” Both employee religious beliefs and workplace conditions could change.

Of particular note, the technical guidance confirms that “an employer has the right to discontinue a previously granted accommodation if it is no longer utilized for religious purposes, or if a provided accommodation subsequently poses an undue hardship on the employer’s operations due to changed circumstances.”

The EEOC suggests that, as a best practice, employers should discuss any changes (and potential alternatives) with the affected employee before revoking a previously granted accommodation.

Uncertainty Remains Unavoidable

This recent EEOC guidance offers some clarification for employers facing the difficult challenge of responding to employees’ religious objections to vaccine mandates. Unfortunately, however, the emphasis on a case-by-case analysis leaves each situation open to interpretation. As a result, employees who don’t get the accommodations they seek may pursue religious discrimination claims under Title VII or similar state or local laws. A wave of such litigation is likely, no matter how careful employers are in evaluating these requests. Thus, you should review these requests with an experienced employment lawyer before taking final action that may upset an employee.

 

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Accommodating Religious Beliefs in the Workplace

Accommodating Religious Beliefs in the Workplace

Most U.S. employers are legally prohibited from discriminating in employment based on individuals’ religious beliefs. Unlike most other employment discrimination protections, this aspect of employment discrimination law further requires employers to accommodate employees’ sincerely held religious beliefs.

Applicable Laws

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a federal law that prohibits employment discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Under Title VII, employers generally may not take adverse employment action against applicants or employees based on these characteristics. The law disallows both intentional and unintentional discrimination, but does not require affirmative action. However, it does compel employers to provide reasonable accommodations based on employees’ religious beliefs.

Title VII does not apply to religious organizations regarding the employment of individuals of a particular religion. Courts have limited this exception only to organizations whose “purpose and character are primarily religious.” Even where this exemption applies, it only affects hiring and firing decisions. Once a religious organization hires employees of different religions, they cannot discriminate against them regarding pay, benefits, and other similar conditions of employment.

Title VII only applies to employees with at least 15 employees. Many states have laws encompassing religious discrimination and accommodations that apply to smaller employers. For example, the New York State Human Rights Law applies to employees with as few as four employees.

This article focuses on Title VII’s religious accommodations requirements. Similar state laws often have comparable rules. But some will vary in ways that may be relevant to any particular situation.

Sincerely Held Religious Beliefs

Title VII defines religion to include “all aspects of religious observance and practice, as well as belief, unless an employer demonstrates that he is unable to reasonably accommodate to an employee’s or prospective employee’s religious observance or practice without undue hardship on the conduct of the employer’s business.”

A religion does not have to be well-recognized or observed by many people to qualify an employee for Title VII protection. EEOC compliance guidance states that “religion” includes “religious beliefs that are new, uncommon, not part of a formal church or sect, only subscribed to by a small number of people, or that seem illogical or unreasonable to others.” Religious beliefs can even include non-theistic beliefs.

No single rule determines whether an individual sincerely holds a religious belief. Some factors that might undermine asserted sincerity include whether the:

  • employee has behaved markedly inconsistent with the professed belief;
  • requested accommodation sought is a particularly desirable benefit that is likely to be sought for secular reasons;
  • timing of the request is suspect; and
  • employer otherwise has reason to believe the accommodation is not sought for religious reasons.

The requirement that a religious belief be “sincerely held” only applies regarding religious accommodations.

Religious Accommodations

Accommodations may include any adjustment to the work environment that will allow the employee to comply with their religious beliefs. Requests often relate to work schedules, dress and grooming rules, or religious expression or practice while at work.

The employee must initiate a request for accommodation by notifying the employer of the need for adjustment of work conditions due to a conflict with their religious beliefs. The employee must also explain the religious belief to the employer. The employer may seek additional information. But it cannot go so far as to discriminate against the employee by overly burdening them based on the request.

As with requests for accommodations based on disabilities, employees are only entitled to “reasonable accommodations” that do not impose “undue hardship” on their employer.

To show undue hardship in this context, the employer must identify more than “de minimis” costs of providing the accommodation. The EEOC’s website suggests: “An accommodation may cause undue hardship if it is costly, compromises workplace safety, decreases workplace efficiency, infringes on the rights of other employees, or requires other employees to do more than their share of potentially hazardous or burdensome work.”

Both reasonableness and undue hardship are measured on a case-by-case basis.

Handling Religious Accommodation Requests

Employers (through their managers) must be conscientious upon receiving a request for a change in work conditions related to religious beliefs. Ideally, there should be a procedure in place for receiving and processing these requests. Any sign of hostility toward a request may alone risk a claim of harassment or discrimination, even if no accommodation is due.

At the same time, employers need not automatically grant every request by an employee tied to a religious belief. Some may be unreasonable. Others may not be premised on a sincerely held religious belief. Still others may create an undue hardship. But all requests should be handled carefully so these criteria can be considered and weighed properly.