Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta must pay tens of thousands of dollars to settle a religious discrimination lawsuit, after the pediatrics health care system fired an employee for refusing to get the flu vaccine, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
According to the initial lawsuit, DeMaurius Jackson was fired from his job as a maintenance assistant in December 2019 after requesting a religious exemption to Children’s vaccination policy, which required all staff to get the annual flu vaccination. A member of the New Covenant Congregation of Israel, Jackson’s job primarily consisted of groundskeeping.
Jackson requested religious exemptions from Children’s mandatory influenza vaccination policy in 2017 and 2018 and it was granted both years, according to the initial lawsuit. In October 2019, he again requested an exemption.
Jackson’s request was reviewed and denied by Children’s Flu Exemption Committee, and he received a call from the employee health manager to elaborate more on his “sincerely held” beliefs. He was then fired for not getting the vaccine.
“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 pose an undue hardship, an employer may not deny requested religious accommodations, let alone revoke those previously granted without issue.”
Children’s didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. When the lawsuit was filed last year, Children’s issued a statement denying that it discriminated on the basis of any protected category, including religion.
“At Children’s, the safety of our patients and our staff is our utmost priority,” according to the statement. " To help protect patients and staff against acquiring or transmitting the seasonal flu, staff are required to receive the annual flu vaccination.”
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says the alleged conduct violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits firing an employee because of their religion and requires that employers provide reasonable accommodations. Children’s must now pay $45,000 in monetary damages to the former employee, and will also need to change its influenza vaccine religious exemption policy.
Following an increase in flu-related deaths among kids in 2019, Children’s said it modified its vaccination exemption policy related to staff who are regularly exposed to patients to align with CDC recommendations and protect patients.
