Mayo Clinic To Pay $50K After Doubting Security Guard's Faith Over COVID Vaccine

ROCHESTER, MN — The Mayo Clinic will pay $50,000 to settle a federal lawsuit alleging the health care giant refused to grant a Rochester security guard a religious exemption from its COVID-19 vaccine mandate, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Wednesday.

According to the EEOC's lawsuit, the employee, who worked in a non-medical role, objected to the vaccine because of his faith and asked for an accommodation after Mayo rolled out its vaccination policy in October 2021.

He explained the basis of his religious beliefs and offered to be tested for COVID-19 and to wear a mask, the agency said.

In December 2021, Mayo rejected the request because it did not believe his religious beliefs were sincere, according to the suit. Facing termination, the guard got the vaccine to avoid losing his job.

"Even when faced with unique challenges like the pandemic, employers must comply with federal civil rights laws," Christopher Lage, EEOC deputy general counsel, said in a statement.

"An employer should ordinarily assume that an employee's request for religious accommodation is based on a sincerely held religious belief, unless it has an objective basis for further inquiry."

The EEOC said the alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars religious discrimination and requires employers to reasonably accommodate workers' religious practices unless doing so would cause an undue hardship.

The agency filed the case, EEOC v. Mayo Clinic, in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota after first trying to reach a settlement through its pre-litigation conciliation process.

In addition to the payment to the employee, the two-year consent decree bars Mayo from failing to provide religious accommodations to its vaccination requirements absent undue hardship and from retaliating against employees who request such accommodations in the future.

Mayo also agreed to adopt policies addressing religious accommodation requests, provide annual training on religious accommodations to human resources staff who review those requests, post a notice of employee rights and submit periodic compliance reports to the EEOC.

In a statement to the Star Tribune, Mayo Clinic said its vaccination program was set up "in accordance with the law" to protect the health and safety of staff, patients and communities, and that it included a process for accommodating religious beliefs.