Return to Work: Employer-Mandated COVID-19 Vaccination Policies and Accommodating Employee Disabilities and Religious Beliefs
The Nevada legislature is currently considering a bill, SB 201, that would restrict, with certain exceptions, an association or unit’s owner who rents or leases his or her unit from prohibiting a unit’s owner or occupant of a...more
Ramadan is coming up soon, so now is a good time to consider religious accommodations and legal protections for Muslim employees....more
After the case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, on January 30 a federal district court denied dueling motions for summary judgment filed by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, the U.S. Postal Service, and former Postal...more
Lawsuits challenging employers' authority to require measures intended to prevent COVID-19 infections continue to wend their way through the federal judiciary. Last month, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a claim...more
Knowing several religious holidays are coming up soon, employers can take steps to avoid triggering religious discrimination and reasonable accommodation lawsuits. Consistently applying paid time off rules can help to prevent...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: With the myriad claims for religious accommodation that came out of mandatory COVID vaccination policies, employers have become familiar how to handle requests for religious accommodation in the workplace. ...more
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, employers attempting to enforce safety policies faced resistance from employees opposed to vaccination mandates. In many cases, employees claimed that taking the vaccine violated...more
Imagine you manage a busy restaurant, and you are working on the schedule for next week. Saturday is your busiest day, and you need all hands on deck, so you need to schedule everyone for that day. Just when you have the...more
Last fall, I reported on a proposed Enforcement Guidance issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on workplace harassment. I gave the proposed guidance a good review overall, although I had some disagreements...more
The Utah Antidiscrimination Act has been amended to expand religious accommodation requirements for employers under Utah law. The Utah Legislature passed House Bill 396 (H.B. 396), and Governor Spencer Cox signed the bill on...more
Chutzpah is a Yiddish word derived from the Aramaic ḥuṣpāh. It means impudence, gall, and an audacious disregard for rules. In the world of employment law, it can aptly describe employees who try to get what they want...more
The teacher had a religious objection. The Virginia Supreme Court yesterday found in favor of a West Point public school teacher whose employment was terminated because he would not address a transgender student by the...more
The retail industry is a shift-based industry, dependent on workers signing up for weekday and weekend shifts, for holidays, and for times when few average workers would dream of being awake and at work. What if an employee...more
In Part One of this two-part bulletin, we explored the expansive meaning of religious beliefs entitled to an accommodation under Title VII and the reluctance of courts to second guess whether a belief is “religious” in...more
On September 25 a federal court in New York dismissed a lawsuit accusing an employer of failing to accommodate an employee’s religious beliefs as a member of the “Temple of the Healing Spirits” located in “Deland city,...more
Hair. In some religions it is considered a sacred gift from God that should not be cut. In other religions, it must be styled, covered, or cut in particular ways. These religious practices may result in employees’ requesting...more
For retail establishments, developments involving religious accommodation and the new Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) make scheduling employees more challenging. Religious Accommodation- The U.S. Supreme Court...more
On September 6, 2023, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a new law (A6604 / S4982) that prohibits New York employers and employment agencies from discriminating or retaliating against employees who refuse to attend...more
In the Groff v. DeJoy, Postmaster General opinion published on June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court gave parameters to the definitions of certain key employment law terms. After nearly 50 years of precedent, the U.S. Supreme...more
How far must employers go to accommodate their employees' sincerely held religious beliefs? Last month, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Groff v. DeJoy, a case that asks the Justices to answer this very question—and...more
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in Groff v. DeJoy, a case I blogged about in January. The case is about what standard of "undue hardship" should apply in religious accommodation cases. Under every...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Yesterday the Supreme Court held oral argument in Groff v. DeJoy, a case in which the Court is considering whether to overturn decades of precedent established by the seminal religious accommodation case,...more
The U.S. Supreme Court is set to consider whether its own definition of “undue hardship” with respect to religious accommodation requests, which employers have relied upon for more than 45 years, remains valid when it hears...more
Adelina Suarez was a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) who worked for a state-operated certified residential nursing facility for vulnerable, disabled adults in Yakima, Washington. Throughout her employment, which was covered...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Accommodation requests continue to vex employers as they attempt to balance an employee’s religious beliefs with the overall needs of the business operations. But try they must....more