Northwestern Medicine Agrees to Pay $325K in Religious Discrimination Case

Northwestern Medicine agreed to pay $325,000 in monetary relief to a class of employees denied vaccine exemptions because of their religious beliefs or practices and to provide other relief following an investigation by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

The agreement resolves charges filed with the EEOC alleging discrimination against employees based on their religion when it denied reasonable accommodation requests to employees who requested a faith-based exemption to Northwestern Medicine’s mandatory flu vaccination policy.

The EEOC’s investigation found that Northwestern Medicine discriminated against a class of employees from November 10, 2023, to the present at its facilities across Illinois by denying these employees a religious accommodation and by denying them the opportunity to earn an annual bonus which the employer described as a “vaccine incentive bonus,” intended to motivate compliance with the vaccination mandate policy.

The alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on religion.

Following the EEOC’s investigation, the parties engaged in the pre-litigation conciliation process which resulted in a two-year agreement requiring Northwestern Medicine to provide compensatory damages to the aggrieved individuals. The agreement also requires Northwestern Medicine to revise its policies, educate staff on their rights in the religious accommodation process, train management who exercise decision-making authority on religious accommodation requests, and report to the EEOC about religious accommodation request denials.

Source: EEOC