Silver Cross Hospital violated federal law when it fired two employees in 2021 who did not comply with the New Lenox hospital’s mandatory policy that all employees be vaccinated for COVID-19, lawsuits allege.
The employees had asked for, and been denied, reasonable accommodation when they asked to be exempt from the vaccination policy due to religious and disability reasons, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charged in lawsuits filed Thursday in federal court in Chicago.
A spokeswoman for Silver Cross said Friday the hospital does not comment on pending or ongoing litigation or employment-related matters.
“As a regional healthcare provider, Silver Cross Hospital’s foremost responsibility is to ensure the health and safety of our patients, our staff and the communities we serve,” she said in an email.
One employee, Sarah Kotan, who worked in the hospital’s lab, requested a religious accommodation because taking the COVID-19 vaccine conflicted with her religious beliefs and practices, one of the EEOC’s lawsuit alleges.
Debra Phillips, who worked in the hospital’s insurance department, requested an accommodation based on disability after she had a severe allergic reaction to the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, the EEOC said in her lawsuit.
Silver Cross denied their requests for accommodation and fired them, even though the hospital could have put safeguards in place, such as requiring both to undergo weekly COVID-19 testing, the EEOC lawsuits say.
Kotan and Phillips are seeking unspecified monetary damages, including back pay, according to the complaints.
Silver Cross enacted a policy in September 2021 requiring all employees be vaccinated by the end of October of that year, but allowed for employees to seek exemptions, the lawsuits say.
The EEOC said Kotan and Phillips had their exemption requests denied, and when they appealed those were denied as well.
The EEOC said it tried negotiating with the hospital in both cases in order to avoid a lawsuit, but was unable in either instance to secure a settlement agreeable to the commission.
Krotan was fired from her lab job in October 2021, and Phillips from her insurance department job in December 2021, although she was never told she had been fired after being placed on unpaid leave from Silver Cross, according to the EEOC.
Phillips’ lawsuit alleges that she didn’t find out she had been fired and believed she was still on unpaid leave until February 2022, when she asked the hospital for a copy of her personnel record.
“Absent an undue hardship, civil rights laws affirmatively require employers to accommodate an employee’s disability and religious practices,” said Andrea Lucas, the EEOC’s acting chair, in a news release Friday announcing the lawsuits.
“Unfortunately, many employers’ vaccine mandates turned a blind eye to these long-standing civil rights laws. However, the novelty of the COVID-19 pandemic is not a shield for employers to engage in garden variety discrimination.”
