Health

‘This is not in the Job Description.’ HR is navigating confusing COVID-19 religious exemption requests


As businesses across the country begin to impose strict requirements on COVID-19 vaccines and testing, some employees are asking for religious exemptions to avoid vaccination — placing human resources departments against a bitter political issue that has proven fertile ground for lawsuits.

The task before HR leaders is complex: they have to figure out whether an employee is applying for a waiver based on true religious beliefs or whether it is a cover for their political views. “There are people who will have a sincere religious belief, but there are a lot of people out there who are just opposed to the vaccine and this will be the way for them to not get it,” said Ed Enoch, a lawyer in Augusta. ,” said Ed Enoch, an attorney in Augusta, Ga., who has placed calls from clients at small and mid-sized local businesses about everything from handling waivers religion to vaccination duties.
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Any request for a religious exemption for the COVID-19 vaccine must be reviewed individually. The claimant can be part of a minority sect or small religious community, but you can’t just create a religion. More importantly, what employers judge is not whether the leaders of an organized religion endorse vaccines but whether an individual’s religious beliefs are authentic and provide information about other aspects of their lives other than being vaccinated against COVID-19.

“You can’t just say privately that the Pope says vaccines are okay, so we’re not going to give Catholics religious exemptions,” Enoch said. “It’s not necessarily part of the doctrine of the faith you attend, so it’s a really confusing standard; It’s really hard to put a finger on that. ”

Federal employees have comply with COVID-19 vaccine regulations, and 92% received at least one dose, White House said on November 24. Current There is no such rule valid for private employers in the United States, despite repeated efforts by the Biden Administration to establish one. An Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rule issued November 4 requires businesses with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforce is fully immunized. enough or test negative for COVID-19 at least weekly. Last week, the Biden Administration asked a federal court to intervene and remove the stay. During the measurement, The White House is urge businesses to proceed with the application of the rules. When the fate of the OSHA rule plays out in the courts, many businesses have imposed or are considering imposing strict regulations on vaccines and testing.

Many large companies and government organizations across the United States have established vaccine mandates succeeded in the vaccination of staff. The city’s mayor said in October, the city’s mayor said, for example, that mandating vaccinations for New York City schools has resulted in 96% of teachers being vaccinated. And United Airlines, the first US airline to adopt a vaccine regulation, announced at the end of September upon request, 99.5% of staff have been vaccinated. These new requirements have also sparked a number of lawsuits. In Monday, federal judge blocked The Biden administration’s imposition of vaccination mandates for healthcare workers in 10 states. A circuit court rule the same day that 15 New York City public school teachers and administrators must have their COVID-19 religious waiver request reviewed for potentially violating their First Amendment rights.

For its part, Enoch has encouraged many of its customers — including businesses that don’t have a staffing department or depend on one or two people — to avoid imposing a vaccination mandate. It’s not because he thinks employees shouldn’t be vaccinated. Instead, he believes that incentives, such as bonuses, are a more effective way to attract the majority of workers. He also worries that employers don’t “have the time, resources or knowledge to properly vet (religious exemptions)” and are likely to end up saying: Well, I’ll just give it to whoever asks.”

“Once you do that, then you really have no mandate. All you do is create a pile of paperwork for yourself that you can avoid by being off-duty,” says Enoch.

On social media, thousands of people are sharing tips with each other on how to successfully ensure religious exemptions. Nico Rocco, who used to be the administrator of a Facebook group called “Writing religious exemptions for people with a mandate to vaccinate,” has 5,300 members and specializes in running religious exemptions locally. work, run a website called Essential Freedom Offers seminor above “How to answer the toughest questions about religious exemption forms“For $25. The questionnaires included a description of the conflict between a person’s religious beliefs and the requirement for a COVID-19 vaccine, as well as an investigation into whether employees avoid drugs such as Tylenol and Pepto-Bismol, which were researched and developed. developed in a similar way to COVID-19 vaccines (based in part on fetal cell lines). He offers to provide “real life examples… to use from accepted letters” and a free comprehensive guide to answering questions from employers. Rocco, who collect donations from people who felt the information was beneficial to them, did not respond to a request for comment from TIME. After TIME sent a Facebook message to the group’s admin requesting an interview, the group was made private.

Share tips on how to tailor responses to employer questions about religious exemptions Some experts say there could be a way to fool the religious exemption system. Relying on stereotypes rather than articulating your specific beliefs calls into question sincerity, which employers are trying to gauge. “It’s legal for an employer to say, ‘Well, are these your words?’,” said Katherine Franke, a law professor at Columbia University and director of the Department of Law, Rights and Religion Projects. “If it seems like the person is just describing something they copied from the internet, the recruiter might say no; We will not exempt you. “

But in practice, it remains unclear how much time the HR departments of labor companies will be able to spend scrutinizing these claims. “Many small businesses”—mostly those in the United States—“have a human resources department,” says Emily M. Dickens, chief human resources officer. and head of government affairs at Human Resource Management Association (SHRM). Reviewing each waiver request can be time consuming. “There are going to be employers who don’t want to be involved in the work of assessing religious exemptions, and so they’re going to double check,” says Franke. Employees have long been able to claim religious exemptions for policies like dress codes or mandatory work on certain days, but these policies can be more easily approved because They do not affect other employees. “[If companies] Employers may experience outbreaks of COVID in the workforce because they have been so generous in their exemptions, Franke said.

With the new omicron variantThe need for a rigorous examination of religious exemptions is even more urgent, experts say. “This is serious business. This is not a theory exercise. People are going to die,” Franke said. “If the rest of us bear the brunt, the public health risk of religious exemption is too broad – it’s a public health disaster.”

A November 4 survey from The SHRM found that 64% of employers were concerned about how requests for religious or medical exemptions to potential immunization mandates would be handled. Many HR professionals have been overwhelmed by budget cuts and significant labor shortages. They now face questioning the sincerity of their employees’ religious beliefs and potentially being sued regardless of what they decide. “We have companies that are not prepared for this,” says Dickens. “This is not in the job description.”



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