Mayo Clinic to Pay $50,000 in EEOC COVID-19 Vaccine Religious Accommodation Suit

MINNEAPOLIS — Mayo Clinic, a non-profit operator of hospitals in Minnesota, Arizona and Florida, will pay $50,000 and furnish other relief to settle a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) religious discrimination lawsuit, the federal agency announced today.

According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, Mayo Clinic unlawfully denied a Rochester, Minnesota employee’s request to be exempted from the provider’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy as a religious accommodation.

The employee, a security guard in a non-medical role, opposed taking the COVID-19 vaccine because of his faith and requested an accommodation to Mayo’s vaccination policy, which was implemented in October 2021. He explained the basis of his religious beliefs and offered to be tested for COVID-19 and to wear a mask. In December 2021, Mayo rejected his request because it did not believe his religious beliefs were sincere. Faced with termination, the employee submitted to the vaccination policy to avoid being fired, according to the suit.

“Even when faced with unique challenges like the pandemic, employers must comply with federal civil rights laws,” said Christopher Lage, EEOC deputy general counsel. “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. Employers should provide accommodations for all aspects of religious observances or practices unless doing so would result in an undue hardship.”

Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination because of an individual’s religion and requires employers to reasonably accommodate an employee’s religious observance or practice unless doing so would cause an undue hardship. The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. Mayo Clinic, Case No. 25-cv-3066) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process.

In addition to awarding damages to the affected employee, the two-year consent decree settling the suit prohibits Mayo Clinic 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. The clinic will also adopt and affirm policies addressing requests for religious accommodation; provide annual training on religious accommodations for the human resources employees involved in the review and approval of accommodation requests; post a notice of employees’ rights; and submit periodic compliance reports to the EEOC.

For more information on religious discrimination, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/religious-discrimination.

The EEOC’s Chicago District Office has jurisdiction over Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota and North Dakota.

The EEOC is the sole federal agency authorized to investigate and litigate against businesses and other private sector employers for violations of federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. For public sector employers, the EEOC shares jurisdiction with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. The EEOC also is responsible for coordinating the federal government’s employment antidiscrimination effort. More information about the EEOC is available at www.eeoc.gov.