A suit filed by former employees of Bristol-Myers Squibb could be instructive on an employer’s duties to accommodate religious exemptions raised when employees refuse to comply with a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy.

The four plaintiffs were fired after the company rejected their proffered reasons for seeking religious exemptions to the vaccine requirement, the complaint said. Two plaintiffs claimed they refused the COVID-19 vaccine due to alleged links to stem cells and aborted fetuses. A third plaintiff said she refused the vaccine because she is a born-again Christian and a fourth said she declined to be vaccinated because her body “is a temple.”

John D. Coyle, Coyle Law Group, Morristown, NJ. Courtesy photo