Religious Accommodation
Fired for Refusing COVID-19 Vaccine: Do They Get Unemployment?
An employee who is fired for refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccine – without showing entitlement to a legitimate religious or disability-related exemption – is likely to have a hard time collecting unemployment compensation benefits, two recent court rulings show. Though each state sets its own specific eligibility guidelines, these two rulings from Minnesota hinge…
Read MoreShould Your Workplace Require Flu Shots?
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently reported the start of the most severe flu season in over a decade, leading employers of all types to decide whether they should mandate flu shots for their workforce. The flu season typically runs between October and May with a peak in January and February,…
Read MoreEmployers Weigh Whether to Rescind Vaccination Policies
Now that the vaccine-or-testing emergency temporary standard (ETS) from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has been withdrawn, employers that have instituted mandatory vaccination or vaccine-or-testing policies are deciding whether to stay the course or backtrack. The U.S. Supreme Court recently blocked OSHA’s vaccine-or-testing rule, an ETS that applied to employers with at least 100…
Read More4 Steps for Handling Religious Objections to Workplace Vaccine Mandates
Employers generally must explore reasonable accommodations for employees who refuse to get vaccinated against the coronavirus based on a sincerely held religious belief—but objections based on personal or political views are not protected under federal anti-discrimination laws. Many employers who implemented vaccine mandates have faced a tidal wave of requests for religious exemptions, according to…
Read MoreWhen May an Employer Reject a Religious Accommodation Request?
An employer that requires vaccinations against COVID-19 must grant sincere religious accommodation requests, so long as they don’t cause an undue hardship on the company. How can a business tell whether an objection to vaccination is based on a genuinely held religious belief and accommodate without creating an undue hardship? Since it is so hard…
Read MoreEEOC Issues New Guidance on Religious Discrimination and Accommodation of Religious Beliefs
Whenever there is a change in federal administrations, employers must be aware of how various employment laws, rules and regulations will change. One hot topic in employment law, which has seen significant change in recent years, is religious discrimination and accommodation of religious beliefs in the workplace. This issue is pertinent, not only because of…
Read MoreEmployers Paid $439M to Resolve EEOC Discrimination Claims in 2020
Employers paid more than $439 million to resolve U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) discrimination allegations. That number includes both private sector and state and local government workplaces during the agency’s 2020 fiscal year, according to a Feb. 26 statement. Retaliation claims constituted more than half of all charges filed with the agency last year, while disability-related claims and…
Read MoreSenate Confirms 3 Commissioners, Maintaining EEOC’s Right-Leaning Quorum
The U.S. Senate this week confirmed the nominations by Republicans of three commissioners for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Keith E. Sonderling, deputy administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, was confirmed Sept. 22 with a term that expires July 1, 2024 with a vote of 52-41. Sonderling was nominated in July 2019,…
Read MoreTaking Advantage of Your Summer Break – Revisit, Refresh, and Review
Handbooks. The mere mention of the company handbook typically sends HR professionals into a furious search for any project other than the company handbook. Sorry, I can’t work on the company handbook, I have to watch the paint dry in my office. For this reason, beyond passing them off during perfunctory onboarding, handbooks typically get…
Read MoreFive Tips For Handling Tricky Religious Accommodations
When an employee’s religious beliefs conflict with a workplace policy, you need to consider whether a reasonable accommodation can be made, without creating an undue hardship. Many times, these religious accommodations present challenging issues for supervisors and HR professionals, but these five tips can help ease the struggle. Tip #1: Consider each request individually When…
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