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KS employers barred from firing employees seeking vaccine mandate waivers

December 2021 employment law letter
Authors: 
Eric Turner, Foulston Siefkin LLP

Kansas Governor Laura Kelly recently signed a bill prohibiting employers from firing employees who submit a written waiver request to their company’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

How new state law works

The main features of the new law are (1) a prohibition on employers questioning the sincerity of an employee’s waiver request based on sincerely held religious beliefs, (2) fines of up to $50,000 per violation for an employer with 100 or more employees or up to $10,000 per violation for all other employers, and (3) eligibility for unemployment benefits to fired employees who were denied a waiver.

The law requires you to exempt employees from your COVID-19 vaccination requirement if they submit a written waiver request based on medical or religious reasons:

  • A medical exemption request must include a written statement signed by a physician or another provider acting at the direction of a physician.
  • A religious exemption request must include a written statement signed by the employee.

The law states you must grant an exemption “based on sincerely held religious beliefs without inquiring into the sincerity of the request.” The bill defines “religious beliefs” as “theistic and non-theistic moral and ethical beliefs as to what is right and wrong that are sincerely held with the strength of traditional religious views.” In other words, the employee’s belief may be moral or philosophical in nature and not necessarily based on the tenets of an organized religion.

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