Children’s hospital fires worker who didn’t get flu shot, feds say. Now it must pay
A children’s hospital in Atlanta owes a former employee thousands of dollars after federal officials said he was fired for not getting a flu shot.
The Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta employee, who is Jewish, wanted an exemption from the hospital’s mandatory flu vaccine policy because of his religious beliefs in 2019, a religious discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says.
After he was hired as a maintenance assistant in May 2016, the employee converted to Judaism months later, the complaint says.
Around the time of his conversion, his hospital supervisor “began trying to convince (him) not to convert, telling him he was not a ‘real Jew,’ calling him a gentile,” according to the complaint.
In 2017 and 2018, the hospital granted the employee’s requests for religious exemption and didn’t require him to get the flu shot — but denied his request in 2019, according to the complaint.
When the employee “resubmitted his request and/or appealed the denial,” he was asked to “elaborate on his sincerely held religious beliefs, which (he) did, to no avail,” the complaint says.
McClatchy News contacted attorneys who represented the hospital for comment on Dec. 26 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
The employee is fired
The children’s hospital fired the man on Dec. 6, 2019, “because of his failure to obtain the flu vaccination,” according to the complaint, which says he was replaced by an employee who wasn’t Jewish and received a flu shot.
That same year, seven employees weren’t required to get the flu shot because the hospital granted their requests for religious exemption, the complaint says.
On the day of the employee’s firing, the hospital “confiscated” his keys and employee badge, and security escorted him from the facility, according to the complaint.
The settlement
The EEOC’s lawsuit accused the hospital of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by firing the maintenance employee and not accommodating his religious beliefs, according to officials.
Now, the hospital will pay him $45,000 in damages to settle the lawsuit, the EEOC announced in a Dec. 22 news release.
As a maintenance assistant, the man didn’t work near patients or his co-workers since he was in charge of groundskeeping duties, according to the complaint.
As part of the settlement, the hospital will “adjust its influenza vaccine religious exemption policy to presume the exemption eligibility of employees with remote workstations or who otherwise work away from the presence of other employees or patients,” the release said.
The settlement also requires the hospital to protect employees who “seek alternative positions within CHOA if their religious exemption request is denied,” according to officials.
Certain hospital employees will also be trained on how Title VII protects employees’ religious rights, the release said.
“It is the responsibility of an employer to accommodate its employees’ sincerely held religious beliefs,” Marcus G. Keegan, the regional attorney for the EEOC’s Atlanta district office, said in a statement.
“Unless doing so would require more than a minimal cost, an employer may not deny requested religious accommodations, let alone revoke those previously granted without issue,” Keegan added.
This story was originally published December 26, 2023 at 11:48 AM with the headline "Children’s hospital fires worker who didn’t get flu shot, feds say. Now it must pay."
.jpg)