November 19, 2024

Joe Biden and OSHA’s Vaccine Mandate Doesn’t Exist. EEOC Cases State Employers Must Offer Religious Exemptions to Vaccine Mandates.

0

From The Federalist:

All executive orders issued by Joe Biden in 2021:

Employers Must Offer Religious Exemptions and Reasonable Accommodations to Vaccine Mandates

Private companies have imposed vaccine mandates and terminated noncompliant employees following President Biden announcing plans to order OSHA to formulate a rule to require all employers with 100 or more employees to mandate COVID-19 vaccines. Employees who are hoping for exemptions for religious or other reasons should ensure consider asking their employer for a copy of the vaccine mandate policy. Ask your employer whether the mandate is the companies decision or based on an executive order or OSHA rule. If the employer states the mandate is because of an executive order or OSHA policy, as for a written copy of that order. Consider filing an EEOC complaint if a vaccine mandate exemption is denied and the denial violates your rights. Additionally, consider requesting accommodation from your employer (make sure to check your employer’s reasonable accommodation and similar policies). If you have a religious exemption to the vaccine mandate, request both an exemption and a reasonable accommodation (working remotely, wear a mask and distance at work, etc;).

For example, if an employer circulates a flyer claiming religious exemptions to the COVID vaccine should be reconsidered because aspiring and other over-the-counter medications utilize HEK 293 research/fetal lines, such a flyer is violating your religious rights. Your employer does not have the right to deny a religious exemption because they disagree with your sincere religious beliefs or think they are hypocritical. Additionally, most employers are ignorant of religion as a whole. It is highly unlikely the individual reviewing your religious exemption request knows about the main pillars of multiple religions, especially if they are uncommon in the United States (Orthodoxy, Buddhism, Islam).

A 2016 EEOC lawsuit found that a hospital must allow religious exemptions to vaccine mandates. The hospital instituted a flu vaccine mandate and denied religious exemptions. The decision highlights that employers may not deny religious exemptions because the employer thinks the religious beliefs are illogical or wrong.

St. Vincent’s Hospital was among several entities sued for flu vaccine mandates:

Religious exemption and other resources:

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.19.21262139v1.full

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *