Is Veganism a Religion?

Is Veganism a Religion? HR Advisor 3-2013

If you thought the Church of Body Modification was stretching the bounds of religious accommodation, now we’ve got veganism to contend with, at least in one courtroom.

A recent case in Ohio shows how far religious accommodation may be heading.

In the case, a customer service rep in a hospital was fired for refusing to take a flu shot. The employee said that because the vaccine was grown in chicken eggs, accepting the vaccine would violate her veganism dietary rules. The employee claimed her veganism is a moral and ethical belief that is sincerely held with the strength of traditional religious views and therefore protected under Title VII.

To bolster her case, she offered an essay titled “The Biblical Basis of Veganism.” The court denied summary judgment for the employer saying it found it “plausible” that the plaintiff subscribed to veganism with a sincerity that equated a religious view.

But the court also said the employer could justify its mandatory vaccination program by providing evidence of the nature and extent of the plaintiff’s contact with patients and of the risk her refusal would pose. (The hospital had accommodated her request to forgo the vaccination in the past.) Chenzira v. Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (S.D. Ohio, December 27, 2012).

We don’t know how this case will turn out, but either way, it’s an important reminder to all employers to train managers to respond carefully and respectfully to any request for religious accommodation, no matter how far-fetched it might seem.

 

Some employee/employer court cases are really interesting & sometimes "unusual".