Supreme Court Miniseries: Religious Accommodation at Work
Employment Law Now VII-133 - Hot Summer Employment Law Developments
#WorkforceWednesday: SCOTUS Introduces Heightened Standard for Religious Accommodation, Rules Against Affirmative Action, Protects “Expressive” Services - Employment Law This Week®
#WorkforceWednesday: The Biden EEOC, New Religious Guidance, and Diversity Training Ban Repealed - Employment Law This Week
On-Demand Webinar | Employment Issues With a COVID-19 Vaccine
K&L Gates Triage: Avoiding the Risks Associated with Mandatory Vaccination Programs
The COVID-19 pandemic brought workplace vaccination policies to the forefront, raising complex questions about religious accommodations. Over four years after the initial rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, these policies remain...more
Vaccine Exemption Policy Requiring Citation to Official Doctrine Violates First Amendment Madison Houghton and Nathan A. Adams IV In Does 1-11 v. Bd. of Regents of Univ. of Colorado, 100 F. 4th 1251 (10th Cir. 2024), former...more
Chutzpah is a Yiddish word derived from the Aramaic ḥuṣpāh. It means impudence, gall, and an audacious disregard for rules. In the world of employment law, it can aptly describe employees who try to get what they want...more
On January 25, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania denied the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s (CHOP) motion to dismiss plaintiff Donald Glover’s complaint in Donald Glover v. The Children’s...more
In last term’s decision in Groff v. DeJoy, the U.S. Supreme Court significantly increased employers’ obligation to consider religious exemption requests under Title VII. Rather than the previous de minimus burden standard,...more
Over the past two years, we have received an increasing number of inquiries from clients regarding their return to the office policies. While some workers object to the end of remote work due to lifestyle preferences, others...more
In September 2023, federal trial courts in Wisconsin and Kentucky issued decisions dismissing plaintiffs’ claims related to employers’ COVID-19 vaccination and testing requirements....more
On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court decided Groff v. DeJoy in a unanimous ruling that clarifies the “undue hardship” standard under which an employer can deny a requested religious accommodation under Title VII of the Civil...more
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in Groff v. DeJoy, a case I blogged about in January. The case is about what standard of "undue hardship" should apply in religious accommodation cases. Under every...more
Assessing extended leave requests can be one of the most difficult and challenging issues employers face. While many employers are sympathetic to an employee's challenging health issues, a desire to help employees must be...more
On September 27, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a Request for Information Regarding Mortgage Refinances and Forbearances. The Request indicates that the CFPB is considering making the COVID...more
Imagine one of your employees (let’s call her Sarah) recently contracted COVID-19, as so many workers have in the past two years. Unlike your other employees, however, Sarah’s symptoms did not subside after a few weeks....more
It should be no surprise that the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has had a tremendous impact on today’s employees’ thoughts on life, work, and workplace rules. A recent Harvard Business Review article describes...more
After roughly two years of isolation, the COVID-19 pandemic finally seems to be dissipating, which means employers across the country are starting to summon employees back to the office. Not all employees are thrilled...more
Whether to protect the health and safety of their workplaces, to comply with governmental requirements when applicable, or a combination of the two, many employers have adopted mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies. Faced...more
Second post in our series. NOTE FROM ROBIN: Last month, I posted the first in what will be a series of very basic explanations of the federal laws that govern the workplace. I could not resist having religious...more
The EEOC has once again updated its guidance and answers regarding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic’s interaction with anti-discrimination laws. We previously discussed this guidance here. This guidance, updated on March 1,...more
On March 1, 2022, the EEOC updated its guidance on religious accommodations to COVID-19 vaccine mandates. While the guidance states that job applicants and employees have a right to request a religious accommodation from an...more
The EEOC recently issued updated guidance regarding religious objections to COVID-19 vaccination requirements. This updated guidance, in the form of FAQs, addresses the circumstances under which employers may need to provide...more
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued new guidance on Tuesday, December 14th, clarifying under what circumstances COVID-19 may be considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act...more
On November 4, 2021, OSHA released its long-anticipated rule related to COVID-19 vaccines in the workplace. The stated purpose of the COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) is to “address the...more
On October 25, 2021, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a new guidance and questions and answers regarding COVID-19 issues confronting employers and employees. The EEOC’s Technical Assistance is...more
Late on October 28, 2021, the Illinois legislature took steps to severely limit challenges to COVID-19 prevention measures. The legislature amended the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act, 745 ILCS 70/1 et seq. (the...more
On Oct. 25, 2021 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued new guidance for resolving religious objections to COVID-19 workplace vaccination mandates. This guidance comes at a time when many employees are...more
Over the last several weeks, employers, in tandem with their legal counsel, have been grappling in good faith with religious exemption requests pouring in following the imposition of COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The analysis...more