Big U.S. companies are taking a range of approaches to dealing with employee requests for a religious exemption to Covid-19 vaccine mandates, according to internal documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Employees at General Electric Co who seek a religious exemption to the vaccine mandate are asked to answer 13 questions, including whether their religious beliefs prevent them from wearing seat belts or taking Tylenol. Workers at Tyson Foods Inc. requesting the same accommodation sign a two-question form.
Employers say they are trying to meet federal requirements and protect their workers by getting them inoculated. Companies are weighing factors such as privacy issues and religious beliefs as they try to identify workers who are attempting to avoid the vaccine for other reasons. Some workers at companies that ask more questions say they feel the protocols were designed to discourage them from seeking a religious exemption.
The more detailed questionnaires, some experts say, reflect a view among employers that vaccine accommodations should be rare, and reserved for people who apply their religious beliefs in other decisions and behaviors as well.
On Friday, the Supreme Court denied a lawsuit by healthcare workers in Maine seeking a religious exemption. Meanwhile, Republican attorneys general in several states filed suits last week challenging the Biden mandate for federal contractors.
Besides GE and Tyson, the Journal reviewed religious-exemption policies for a half-dozen other big companies.
Employees at the railroad operator Amtrak have to fill out a 31-question form that asks, in part, how long they have had their religious beliefs; whether they have any tattoos or body piercings; and whether they eat foods that contain preservatives or chemicals. Amtrak’s form also includes a list of common medications, such as Motrin, which the company says used fetal cell lines during research, testing and development.
One question on the form asks: “Is your request based on a belief that vaccines violate religious teachings that say ‘the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit’ or is your religious belief based on faith healing?”
An Amtrak spokeswoman declined to comment. A spokeswoman for Johnson & Johnson, the maker of Tylenol and Motrin, said fetal cells aren’t involved in the production of those products.
Such detailed questions are likely meant to test an employee’s adherence to a religious belief, employment lawyers say. Asking about tattoos, for instance, is a way to address faiths that discourage people from puncturing their skin, said Vincent White, a New York-based partner at White, Hilferty & Albanese who primarily represents employees in workplace-discrimination and sexual-harassment cases.
Mr. White said in recent weeks that his firm has received 40 to 60 calls a day from workers looking to apply for religious exemptions from their companies. Few established faiths in the U.S. prohibit Covid-19 vaccinations, he said, adding that Pope Francis has encouraged followers to get the shot.
Pfizer Inc., which developed the first Covid-19 vaccine to be approved in the U.S., requires a written request from its own employees, and notes that additional supporting information might be required.
Employees and new hires at Walt Disney Co. fill out a one-page form that asks staffers to “explain the nature of your religious belief, practice or observance and how it prevents you from receiving a COVID-19 vaccination.” The form then notes that Disney might ask to discuss the nature of the religious belief and accommodation request with the employee’s spiritual leader or another third party.
Tyson Foods, one of the first major employers to impose a vaccine mandate, has one of the shortest forms reviewed by the Journal. The half-page document asks employees to state their religious beliefs and explain how they prevents the workers from getting the vaccine.
Tyson says more than 96% of its active U.S. employees are vaccinated, or nearly 60,000 more than when it announced its requirement Aug. 3. “We don’t want to lose any of our team members and are providing religious or medical accommodation based on careful consideration of the individual fact GE in October told its roughly 56,000 U.S. workers that they must receive the vaccine by early December to comply with a mandate from the Biden administration for companies that are federal contractors. The policy has set off small protests at several GE worksites in recent weeks, including at its Greenville, S.C., facility.
Some other companies covered by the government order have faced resistance from employees. Boeing Co., a major GE customer, has had protests at its facilities near Seattle. Boeing workers seeking religious accommodations fill out a four-question form. A Boeing spokeswoman declined to comment.
Each company must develop its own policies for enforcing the White House’s mandate and handling accommodation requests.
One question on the GE form asks: “Does your religious belief prevent you from complying with other safety protocols or requirements designed to keep you safe (e.g. wearing goggles or steel-toed boots, or wearing a seat belt while driving)?”
GE also asks if the religious conflict with the vaccine relates to “the purported use of fetal cells in the development and/or testing of a COVID-19 vaccine.” It provides a list of more than 30 over-the-counter medications, including Tylenol and Tums, “that have reportedly used fetal cells in their development and/or testing,” and asks if the employee has ever used any of them. If so, it asks the worker to “explain how that does not conflict with your sincerely held religious beliefs.”
GE’s document states that dishonesty may result in termination.
“Like many other companies, our focus right now is on supporting our U.S. employees to be fully vaccinated or to complete the accommodation process if they choose to do so,” a GE spokeswoman said. “We have approved the vast majority of religious accommodation requests we have reviewed as part of our effort to comply with the executive order.”
A number of companies and other employers, including hospitals, have asked workers about their vaccination histories when weighing exemptions. Some organizations have found that employees opposed to Covid-19 shots got flu vaccines in the past, so bosses are trying to separate workers’ genuine religious objections from sheer reluctance to get the shot, said Peter Cappelli, a management professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “Patience has run out with non-vaxxers at these organizations,” he said.
Nearly 80% of U.S. adults, or 206 million people 18 and older, have received at least one dose of the vaccines, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cases have fallen this fall. The seven-day moving average of new Covid-19 infections, at roughly 90,000 as of Saturday, is down about half from September, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
United Airlines Holdings Inc., which in August was one of the first major employers to require staff to get the shots or face termination, is awaiting a court ruling on a lawsuit from a group of employees. The suit alleges that the airline hasn’t made reasonable accommodations for those seeking religious and medical exemptions.
A range of people—from nurses to firefighters to students—have filed lawsuits objecting to the mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations imposed by a growing number of states and cities, claiming that the policies infringe on their constitutional rights. Nearly every legal challenge has failed so far.