The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled recently that the termination of an employee that refused to get an employer-mandated flu shot did not violate the prohibition on religious discrimination under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act because the employee’s objection was not based on a sincerely held religious belief.
The Third Circuit’s ruling in Fallon v. Mercy Catholic Medical Center of Southeastern Pennsylvania, No. 16-3573 (3d Cir. December 14, 2017), provides helpful judicial guidance on the rarely addressed issue of whether a particular belief is “religious” and therefore protected under Title VII.
In Fallon, the appeals court affirmed dismissal of a hospital employee’s lawsuit alleging that he was unlawfully terminated after refusing to take a mandatory flu shot because his employer should have accommodated his so-called religious objection against vaccinations. The court determined, however, that the employee’s beliefs were medical and moral in nature, not religious, and therefore not protected under Title VII.
A copy of the Third Circuit’s opinion in Fallon is available here.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.