Dispute Over Religious Accommodation to Hospital's Flu Shot Policy Must Be Resolved at Trial, Federal Court Rules
A federal court in North Carolina has ruled that a jury trial will be held in a case brought by the EEOC challenging a hospital's mandatory flu shot policy. The case was filed in 2016 by the EEOC for a group of terminated employees who failed to request a religious exemption by a certain deadline and did not get the required flu shot. On August 7, 2017, the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina ruled that it could not dismiss the case at summary judgment without a trial, concluding that a jury would be needed to decide whether workers who did not request a religious exemption to the policy were treated more favorably. The mandatory flu shot policy required that workers obtain a flu shot by December 1. However, to accommodate sincere religious beliefs, the policy also allowed workers who had objections to receiving a flu shot on religious grounds to request an exemption under the policy. The policy required workers to make the request for the