Kaiser Permanente Settles Religious Discrimination Charges With the EEOC Over Vaccine Mandate Policy

According to the EEOC, Kaiser Permanente, a national health insurance and healthcare company headquartered in Oakland, California, resolved 12 charges of discrimination filed with multiple offices at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for $358,000 and injunctive relief. The EEOC charges of discrimination alleged that Kaiser denied employees religious accommodations to the company’s vaccine mandate policy. The EEOC investigated the allegations and found reasonable cause to believe that Kaiser violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when it questioned the sincerity of employees’ religious beliefs and failed to provide religious accommodations as appropriate to employees at various locations in several states. Without admitting liability, Kaiser entered into conciliation agreements with the EEOC. The company confirmed completion of equal employment opportunity training on reasonable religious accommodations and installed processes to address reasonable religious accommodations made by employees in accordance with federal law. The EEOC will monitor compliance for the agreements’ one-year term.