EEOC issues new guidance for religious objections to vaccine mandates

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued new guidance about religious objections to workplace COVID-19 vaccination requirements on October 25, 2021. While the information doesn’t substantially alter any previously issued guidelines, the agency has begun to address many practical concerns employers are facing when it comes to implementing the mandates and legally processing employees’ religious accommodation requests.

Seven questions and answers

Do employees have to tell you about their religious objection to the COVID-19 vaccine? Yes. Employees must let you know they’re requesting an exception to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate because it conflicts with their sincerely held religious beliefs. Although there are no magic words they must use to request an accommodation, they must provide enough information to notify you about a conflict between their sincerely held religious beliefs and the shot mandate.

How does EEOC define “sincerely held religious belief”? The EEOC’s most recent guidance doesn’t define what it considers to be “sincerely held religious beliefs.” Under federal law, however, they “include moral or ethical beliefs as to what is right and wrong which are sincerely held with the strength of traditional religious views.”

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects religious beliefs beyond the traditional, organized religions most often recognized (e.g., Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and so on). Social, political, or economic philosophies as well as mere personal preferences aren’t religious beliefs protected by the Act.