Unidentified 'leading tech company' settles EEOC vaccine probe for $15 million

By Daniel Wiessner

March 24 (Reuters) - A "leading global technology company" will pay $15 million to settle claims that it illegally refused to grant workers medical and religious exemptions to a COVID-19 vaccine requirement, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said on Tuesday without naming the company.

The commission in a release said the settlement, which is the agency's largest involving a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, stemmed from charges originally filed against the company in 2021.

The EEOC said it had found reasonable cause to believe that the company engaged in disability and religious discrimination by denying vaccine exemptions for people with medical conditions or religious objections and firing workers who declined to receive vaccines.

Employers who settle EEOC complaints before the agency sues them can opt to remain anonymous, but it is highly unusual for the agency to publicly announce such agreements. A review of the commission's news releases over the last decade found only one other instance. In that 2016 case, an unidentified restaurant in Colorado paid $50,000 for allegedly engaging in wage theft against Latino employees.

An EEOC spokesperson declined to comment on why the company opted to remain anonymous.

Before the settlement announced Tuesday, the commission had netted more than $4 million in settlements in cases involving COVID-19 vaccine mandates since 2023.

Earlier this month, a nonprofit healthcare provider in North Carolina, Rex Healthcare, agreed to pay $150,000 to settle an EEOC lawsuit claiming it denied one employee a religious exemption to its COVID-19 vaccine requirement. Last September, a research laboratory run by the University of Tennessee paid $2.8 million to settle similar claims on behalf of a larger group of workers.

EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas, an appointee of Republican President Donald Trump, in a statement said there is no "pandemic exception" to workers' civil rights.

"This resolution makes clear that America’s workplaces must remain open to employees of faith and to workers with disabilities," she said.

The commission said that along with the payout, the company had agreed to review its policies to ensure compliance with federal civil rights laws and to provide annual training to staff on discrimination based on religion and disability.