What’s Happening in HR – Newsletter
By Michael F. Weiner, Legislative Director - 10/27/2021
EEOC Updates “What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws” Guidance to Address Religious Exemptions for Vaccine Mandates
On October 25, 2021, the EEOC updated its Covid-19 technical bulletin to provide additional information on religious exemptions to vaccine mandates. The EEOC added Section “L” to the guidance. Under Section “L”, the EEOC explained that:
1. Employees have an obligation to request the religious accommodation from the vaccine mandate but there are no magic words that the employee must use. The employee need only notify the employer that there is a conflict between the employee’s sincerely held religious beliefs and the employer’s Covid-19 vaccination requirement.
2. Employers should assume that a request for religious accommodation is based on sincerely held religious belief if claimed by an employee. However, if the employer has an objective basis for questioning either the religious nature or sincerity of a particular belief, the employer can make a limited factual inquiry and seek additional information to satisfy its question(s).
3. An employer must accommodate an employee’s sincerely held religious belief unless the accommodation would pose an undue hardship for the employer. The guidance notes that requiring an employer to bear more than a minimal cost to accommodate an employee’s religious belief is an undue hardship. Costs to be considered include not only direct monetary costs but also the burden on the conduct of the employer’s business – including, in this instance, the risk of the spread of COVID-19 to other employees or to the public. Furthermore, Courts have found Title VII undue hardship where, for example, the religious accommodation would impair workplace safety, diminish efficiency in other jobs, or cause coworkers to carry the accommodated employee’s share of potentially hazardous or burdensome work.
4. If an employer grants one religious’ accommodation, it does not necessarily have to grant all requested accommodations if the employer can show sufficient differences in costs or disruption to the employer. The employer’s undo-hardship analysis may be different for different employees and the employer should conduct a separate analysis for each employee making an accommodation request.
5. The employer does not have to provide the accommodation requested or preferred by the employee, if there is more than one reasonable accommodation that would resolve the conflict between the vaccination requirement and the sincerely held religious belief without causing under hardship.
6.If an employer grants a religious accommodation, it can reconsider that accommodation if the employer can show a change in circumstances warranting reconsideration.
