Originally published on January 27, 2021 10:40 am
When Keith Brown tries to describe the 25 years he spent in prison, he keeps coming back to one word: congested.
From the chow hall to the bathrooms, there’s no escape from the constant press of bodies a feeling that “nobody should ever experience,” he said.
Last spring, Brown was incarcerated at Farmington Correctional Center in eastern Missouri, and as inmates began testing positive for the coronavirus, the 8-by-11 cell he shared with another man felt even more cramped.
“You and your cellie, you’re right there together,” he said. “He s touching everything; he’s breathing and coughing and blowing his nose. It’s really hard to break that cycle of infection.”
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On Jan. 15, 2021, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission published updated guidance to its Compliance Manual on Religious Discrimination. The revised guidance, the first substantial update since 2008, came just five days prior to Inauguration Day and passed by a narrow 3-2 commissioner vote.
The EEOC aimed to clarify Title VII religious discrimination laws in the workplace, including the definition of “religion,” the scope of the religious organization exemption, and when reasonable accommodations must be made for religious reasons. As the split commission vote suggests, the new guidance faced broad opposition and the EEOC addressed a wide range of public comments in an addendum to the guidance.
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As the COVID-19 vaccine becomes more widely available, employers are increasingly struggling to determine whether they should implement a vaccine policy and, if so, whether they will require or strongly recommend that their employees receive it. In two of our recent blog posts, we addressed the ability of an employer to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine for its staff and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) “technical assistance” guidance for employers considering the idea. While some clarity on the issue was a welcomed reprieve, it has also shifted the focus of the conversation from “can we” mandate the vaccine to “should we.”
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ATLANTA – Gentiva Health Services, doing business as Kindred at Home, a provider of home health services including nursing and rehabilitation assistance, will pay $160,000 to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.
The EEOC’s suit charged that Kindred learned that one of its employees suffered from Morton’s neuroma and capsulitis of the metatarsophalangeal joints of both feet. The employee initially asked to telecommute for three weeks as an accommodation for her disability and in accordance with her doctor’s recommendation to stay off her feet. Kindred originally allowed her to telework for a week but then reversed its decision and unilaterally placed her on unpaid leave without benefits for four months, despite the fact she could perform the essential functions of her job, the EEOC said.