If you are unable or unwilling to get vaccinated against Covid-19, the following tips should help you navigate the issues you might be facing at work when seeking medical or religious exemption from the vaccination requirements:
- Medical Exemption or Religious Exemption?
As you may already know, if your employer has implemented vaccination rules at workplace, you have the right to seek medical exemption or religious exemption. Generally, it appears that medical exemptions are granted more often than religious exemptions. This is in part because if you have a legitimate medical reason, excusing you from getting the vaccine, it is much harde to challenge it than trying to poke in your religious beliefs. Many workers seek both religious and medical exemptions. In some cases, an argument can be made that violating a religious principle would cause tremendeous or even dibilitating amount of anxiety to an employee that will make him incapable of performing his job duties. Overall, an anxiety over getting vaccinated is not as convincing of a medical reason to employers as an actual physical condition, such as being allergic to certian ingredients in a vaccine, having history of serious adverse reaction to previous vaccinations, and specific illnesses that make getting vaccinated risky or even dangerous.
2. Your Employer Might Be More / Less Flexible.
The practical reality is that some employers will be far more flexible when it comes to accommodating an employee’s request not to get vaccinated. This will depend on that company’s socio-political stand on the issue and also on the nature of the business and your job. Thus, some employers will be happy to accommodate an employee and will treat the whole accommodation process as a simple formality, while others will be very reluctant to provide such an accommodation, claiming that they put safety first, and that they can’t afford to take any risks. If you know that your employer isn’t going to make it easy for you to get that exemption based on their overall attitude toward such requests and based on the experience of your co-workers with similar requests, you might as well start looking for a new job as soon as possible, just in case, while you are going through the accommodation process.
3. The Key To A Successful Accommodation Is Flexibility.
This applies to both – employees and employers. In many cases, there is no perfect solution and both sides should consider making certian compromises. For instance, if the parties are unable to find a perfect solution, they may agree that the employee work remotely most of the time or 100% of the time. They may also arrange for a separate workspace for an employee away form larger groups of workers or customers, in addition to having masking and testing requirements in lieu of vaccination. Like with disability accomodations, this dialogue should be “interactive” where both sides negotiate and look for a solution that works for both sides in good faith.
4. Keep Politics and Science Out Of Your Accommodations Request Process.
As an employee who doesn’t want to get vaccinated, you may have done your own research about vaccines and you may have spoken with many people who share your position against getting vaccinated. As a result, you might be tempted to try to convince your employer that that vaccination mandates are unscientific, non-sensical and even illegal, reminding them that vaccines are not not only not 100% safe, but they also don’t prevent transmission ir infection. However, I would strongly urge you to think twice before you engage in this type of debate, because it will directly undermine your valid accommodations requests by basically telling your employer that the true reason you are seeking exemption is not medical or religious, but policitical. The employers, however, don’t have to even consider your political reasoning for refusing to get vaccinated, let alone honoring it.
5. Keep Your Social Media Free of Anti-Vax Content
Along the lines of Item No. 4 above, make sure your social media activity doesn’t make you sound like an anti-vaxxer, because if the decision makers regarding your accommodation requests will learn of your views from social media, thill pretty much eliminate any chances of them believing that your medical or religious exemption request is genuine. Also, donn’t post anything on social media that casts doubt on whether your medical condition or religious beliefs that form the basis for your accomodation request are what you say they are.
As of this date, November 13, 2021, the law is far form being sufficiently developed to know how various denials of exemptions against vaccination requirement will play out in court, and it will take significant litigation to clarify this novel area of law. Each situation is different and involves unique circumstances. If you want to make sure that you do everything right on your end when you are facing a vaccination exemption issue, you should discuss your situation and most effective legal and practical solution with an experienced employment attorney.