AVFCA successfully educated to ensure Religious Exemptions
for Health Care Worker Flu Vaccine Mandates.
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has stated employers
can require COVID vaccinination, but must offer Religious Exemptions.

Flu Vaccine Mandates: WIN!  Over the past three months, A Voice for Choice Advocacy have sent letters to the Local Health Officer and Board of Supervisors for all California counties and cities who have ordered flu vaccine mandates for Health Care Providers, that only allow a medical exemption.  These include Alameda, Contra Costa, Fresno, Madera, Marin, Sonoma, San Joaquin, Tehama Counties and the City of Berkeley.  Many other counties require the flu vaccine, but allow wearing a mask as an alternative.  We also also sent letters to the City of Pasadena and the City of Long Beach who had mentioned requiring the flu vaccine as part of reopening their K-12 schools.  Our letters asked for the Flu Vaccine mandates to be rescinded or if not rescinded, then for the religious exemption and declination statement be accepted, per federal and state law.  We have received responses from most of these counties and cities, either directly or through healthcare workers, stating that a religious exemption would be valid for employees and that Pasadena and Long Beach will sent up flu vaccine clinics, but flu vaccination will not be required for students to come to school. 

AVFCA have also been educating colleges and universities who have flu vaccine mandates in place that they must offer staff and faculty religious exemptions, and in turn that it would be discrimination for them not to offer the same to students.  While the University of California led the way in mandating the flu vaccine, they also led the way to adding a religious exemption for students, due to pressure from AVFCA, as well as other organizations and unions.   AVFCA has found schools to be receptive to adding the religious exemption. 

COVID Vaccine Mandates: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued a statement last week outlining employer guidelines for COVID vaccine requirements (https://www.eeoc.gov/wysk/what-you-should-know-about-covid-19-and-ada-rehabilitation-act-and-other-eeo-laws).  These guidelines mirror their flu vaccine requirement guidelines, which state that while employers can require a COVID vaccine for employment, they must offer accommodations for religious beliefs, practices or observances.  If your employer is requiring you get a COVID vaccine, our first recommendation is to decline it and see if it is truly a requirement or just a recommendation. If your employer states you must get vaccinated, then ask how you can submit a religious exemption - they may have a form or may require a letter.

Religious Exemptions: AVFCA has successfully helped many get their religious accommodation requests approved.  If you need help with writing a religious exemption or would like us to review it before you submit it, we would be happy to.  Please send the written vaccine policy, including exemption options, a description of your religious beliefs and any other information about the accommodations you are requesting, to [email protected].

We have sent the below a couple of times, but for reference it is copied here it again for those looking to request a religious exemption:

While organizations may just ask for a statement that vaccines are against your religious beliefs and you hold those beliefs sincerely, they have the right to ask for more a detailed explanation to determine that those statements are true.  For employees, the questions must be consistent with the guidance from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/questions-and-answers-religious-discrimination-workplace.  The following are examples of what may be asked to support a religious exemption:

• Explain how receiving the flu/COVID vaccine conflicts with or violates your sincerely held religious belief, observance or practice.
• Identify the sincerely held religious belief, observance or practice that prevents you from receiving the flu/COVID vaccine (this includes moral or ethical beliefs as to what is right and wrong which are sincerely held with the strength of traditional religious views (29 C.F.R.§1605.1), but it does not include “social, political, or economic philosophies” or personal preferences (U.S. Equal Emp’t Opportunity Comm’n, Questions and Answers: Religious Discrimination in the Workplace, Question 1 (Jan. 31, 2011); U.S. Equal Emp’t Opportunity Comm’n, Compliance Manual, Section 12: Religious Discrimination, at 12-I (Coverage) (July 22, 2008)

While the accommodation you are requesting is an exemption to vaccination for religious reasons, you may also be asked to request other accommodations, if not getting the flu/COVID vaccine would make you unable to meet the required/essential functions of your job and would impose an undue hardship, including compromising safety for your organization.

The First Amendment of the US and California Constitutions, guarantees every American freedom of religion which is not restricted to organized religion.  The definition of your religion is your own and you cannot be judged for what it is.  Per the 1964 Civil Rights act:

“Title VII protects all aspects of religious observance and practice as well as belief and defines religion very broadly for purposes of determining what the law covers. For purposes of Title VII, religion includes not only traditional, organized religions such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, but also religious beliefs that are new, uncommon, not part of a formal church or sect, only subscribed to by a small number of people, or that seem illogical or unreasonable to others. An employee’s belief or practice can be “religious” under Title VII even if the employee is affiliated with a religious group that does not espouse or recognize that individual’s belief or practice, or if few – or no – other people adhere to it. Title VII’s protections also extend to those who are discriminated against or need accommodation because they profess no religious beliefs.

Religious beliefs include theistic beliefs (i.e. those that include a belief in God) as well as non-theistic “moral or ethical beliefs as to what is right and wrong which are sincerely held with the strength of traditional religious views.” Although courts generally resolve doubts about particular beliefs in favor of finding that they are religious, beliefs are not protected merely because they are strongly held. Rather, religion typically concerns “ultimate ideas” about “life, purpose, and death.” Social, political, or economic philosophies, as well as mere personal preferences, are not “religious” beliefs protected by Title VII.”

More details on what constitutes religion is outlined in these two articles:
EOCC: Questions and Answers - Religious Discrimination in the Workplace
National Law Review: Flu Shots, Religious Beliefs, and Employee Rights: Navigating the Complex Intersection.

If you are part of an organized religion, most religious texts have verses that relate to the sanctity of blood and bodily autonomy.  

If you found this information helpful and appreciate the work A Voice for Choice Advocacy is doing, please support us by making a donation today.

Together we can make change happen.

C

Christina Hildebrand
President/Founder
A Voice for Choice Advocacy, Inc.
[email protected]
www.AVoiceForChoiceAdvocacy.org