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On October 25, 2021, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued long-awaited technical assistance concerning employees’ religious objections to vaccine requirements in the workplace. (The new guidance is Section L of the EEOC’s Q&A document entitled “What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws,” which can be found here.) Though several state governments, and the federal government, have already issued COVID-19 vaccine mandates for employers, the EEOC’s guidance is quite timely as employers continue to face the often-thorny process of assessing religious accommodation requests from their employees. In case you missed it, we covered the mandate for federal contractors in an earlier article.
The guidance reminds employers that it is the employee’s burden to tell their employer if they are requesting an exception to a vaccination requirement (a “religious accommodation”) because of a conflict with a sincerely held religious belief, practice or observance (“religious beliefs”). Employers should note that employees do not have to recite any specific “magic words” or reference specific laws in order to put the employer on notice that they are seeking a religious accommodation, so long as they notify the employer that a vaccination requirement conflicts with a sincerely held religious belief. The EEOC advises that these principles also apply if an employee expresses a religious conflict with a particular vaccine and wishes to wait until another version or brand of vaccine is available.
Read the full alert here.
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About Our Labor, Employment and Employee Benefits Law Blog
Alerts, commentary, and insights from the attorneys of Pullman & Comley’s Labor, Employment Law and Employee Benefits practice on such workplace topics as labor and employment law, counseling and training, litigation, union issues, as well as employee benefits and ERISA matters.