Dive Brief:
- A transfer was a reasonable accommodation for a Texas firefighter who refused a vaccination on religious grounds, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled (Horvath v. City of Leander, Texas, et al., No. 18-51011 (5th Cir. Jan. 13, 2020)).
- Brett Horvath, a Baptist minister and firefighter for the City of Leander, had received exemptions from the city's flu-shot requirement as a religious accommodation. When it later began requiring some employees to receive a TDAP vaccination, which immunizes against tetanus, diptheria and pertussis, he again sought an exemption. The fire chief offered two options: transfer to a code enforcement job with the same salary and benefits or wear a respirator mask during work, keep a log of his temperature and submit to additional medical testing. Horvath declined both options, arguing that the transfer would result in less-desirable duties and shift and would prevent him for working his second job. The city fired him, citing insubordination for refusing the chief's directions, and he sued.
- A district court granted summary judgment for the city, and the 5th Circuit affirmed. Title VII does not restrict an employer only to accommodations preferred by an employee, it said, and the loss of income from an outside job does not render an accommodation unreasonable.
Dive Insight:
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of religion and, like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for an employee's beliefs.
And as with the ADA's interactive process which only requires an "effective" reasonable accommodation, employees don't have a right to their preferred modification, the Hovarth court noted. "The employer's offer of a reasonable accommodation triggers an accompanying duty for the employee: An employee has a duty to cooperate in achieving accommodation of his or her religious beliefs, and must be flexible in achieving that end," the court said, citing its own precedent.
Vaccine exemptions for both medical and religious reasons have been the subject of several recent lawsuits. In 2018, the 8th Circuit found that an immunization mandate didn't violate the ADA; but last year a Michigan hospital agreed to pay nearly $75,000 to settle claims that it violated Title VII when it refused to accommodate an employee's religious beliefs. Blanket policies may be risky, experts previously told HR Dive, and offering a range of options may be key.
