Children’s hospital to pay parking lot worker $45,000 for refusing to grant him a religious exemption to flu vaccine mandate

Main: Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta sign is shown. (Screengrab via WXIA-TV); Inset: A man gets a flu shot at a health facility in Washington, DC January 31, 2020. (Photo by EVA HAMBACH/AFP via Getty Images).

One of the nation’ top children’s hospitals must pay $45,000 to settle a religious discrimination lawsuit filed by a maintenance worker who refused to get a flu shot for religious reasons.

DeMaurius Jackson worked at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA) in Georgia as a maintenance assistant. According to court documents, Jackson’s duties primarily consisted of groundskeeping in outdoor parking lots, which required minimal interaction with the public. Jackson said his work involved no close proximity to patients, visitors, or staff.

According to Jackson’s complaint, he converted to Judaism in November of 2016. In 2017 and 2018, Jackson requested and received a religious accommodation exemption from the CHOA’s flu vaccination requirement. However, in 2019, the hospital denied Jackson’s written request and fired him.

Jackson filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employ­ment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and said that in addition to denying the exemption, his supervisor “began trying to convince Jackson not to convert, telling him he was not a ‘real Jew,’ calling him a gentile, and purposefully ordering pork products for employee appreciation lunches despite Jackson’s objections.”

According to the complaint, Jackson is a member of the New Covenant Congregation of Israel, a “Messianic Hebrew Israelite” organization that believes “in the teachings of both the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible.” All major denominations of Judaism have rejected Messianic Judaism as a form of Judaism.

The EEOC sued in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia for violation of Jackson’s civil rights under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits firing an employee because of their religion and requires that employers reasonably accommodate the sincerely held religious beliefs of their employees. The case proceeded before U.S. District Judge Michael L. Brown, a Donald Trump appointee.

The agency announced Friday that CHOA will pay $45,000 to Jackson settle the case. Per the consent decree, CHOA will also adjust its flu vaccine policy to pre­sume a religious exemption for employees with remote workstations or who otherwise work away from the presence of other employees or patients. Further, CHOA agreed to protect ability of employees to seek transfer to alternative positions if a religious vaccine exemption request is denied. CHOA also agreed to train its employees on religious accommodation rights under Title VII. CHOA also agreed to provide Jackson with a “neutral letter of recommendation” for his employment files.

“It is the responsibility of an employer to accommodate its employees’ sincerely held religious beliefs,” said Marcus G. Keegan, the regional attorney for the EEOC’s Atlanta District Office. “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. The EEOC is pleased that the employee has been compensated and that CHOA has agreed to take steps to ensure that it meets its obligation to evaluate religious accommodation requests in a manner consistent with federal law.”

Darrell Graham, district director of the Atlanta office, said, “The arbitrary denial of religious accommodations drives religious discrimination in the workplace. The EEOC remains committed to enforcing the laws that protect employees’ religious practices.”

The settlement between CHOA and the EEOC occurred before the completion of the discovery process. Therefore, Jackson’s allegations, including those relating to comments made by his supervisor, were not specifically proven as part of the litigation process.

Attorneys for the parties did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Jackson’s employment case raised two subjects that have been hotly contested in the nation’s appellate courts in recent years: the scope of religious liberty and discrimination, and the legality of various vaccine mandates.

The United States Supreme Court has sided with an evangelical Christian postal worker who said that his religious freedom was violated when he was forced to surrender his job as the only means of avoiding delivering Amazon packages on weekends. Similarly, the Court ruled in 2022 that Maine must subsidize tuition at religious schools.

Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the decision that formally overruled the 1971 case of Lemon v. Kurtzman, which had limited the extent to which public schoolteachers could lead or participate in prayers with students on school grounds. Justice Samuel Alito, meanwhile, said publicly last summer that religion is “under attack” in the United States.

Vaccine requirements have become more common at both public and private workplaces in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and lawsuits challenging those requirements have seen mixed results.

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