Soap Operas are known for drama.  Nothing has caused more drama in the last two years than vaccine mandates.  Last week, a California court determined that a plaintiff’s request for religious accommodation at General Hospital could not be accommodated.  The court concluded defendant had advanced sufficient evidence that unvaccinated employees threatened the health and safety of others during the relevant period and that “testing by itself was not sufficient to address the health and safety concerns associated with the global pandemic during the relevant time period.” Rademacher v. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.

The drama caused by the vaccine mandates is not limited to television sets.  Over 2,000 lawsuits have been filed across the country challenging employer vaccine mandates.  Many have been subject to motions to dismiss. Others are still making their way through the courts.

Many of the cases involve healthcare employers.  Healthcare employers were among the first to require vaccines and in many places federal or state law compelled them to mandate vaccines for staff.  Initial challenges to vaccine mandates alleged a wide variety of creative, but largely meritless, claims that were quickly disposed of by the courts.  The most prevalent current challenge to the various vaccine mandates are claims for denied religious accommodation.  Rademacher is one of the first cases to make it to summary judgment on this claim.  In addition to granting summary judgment on the religious accommodation claim, the court also granted summary judgment on the privacy, breach of contract, retaliation and disability discrimination claims.  The court rejected the plaintiff’s claim that being unvaccinated was a physical/medical condition or a disability and rejected plaintiff’s claim that he was regarded as disabled.

Rademacher involved actors playing doctors.  General Hospital is the long running soap opera, not an actual hospital caring for the most vulnerable populations.  In Rademacher the actors were required to work in close proximity and the show decided not to write masks into the scripts.  In real hospitals, doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals regularly worked in close proximity to others, including those most vulnerable to COVID-19, presumably a far greater risk than that on the set of a fictional hospital in Port Charles.

This is likely the first of many more decisions on this issue. 

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Photo of Patricia Anderson Pryor Patricia Anderson Pryor

Patricia Anderson Pryor is the office managing principal of the Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio offices, as well as the Louisville, Kentucky, office of Jackson Lewis P.C. Patty remains purposefully poised on the precipice of the changing legal landscape, advising clients on everything from…

Patricia Anderson Pryor is the office managing principal of the Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio offices, as well as the Louisville, Kentucky, office of Jackson Lewis P.C. Patty remains purposefully poised on the precipice of the changing legal landscape, advising clients on everything from vaccine mandates to the Dobbs response, to ESG and the attacks on DEI, to the impact of Loper Bright. The combination of Patty’s ability and tenacity to understand and apply workplace law to nuanced legal questions and specific situations results in clients perpetually asking this initial question, “What does Patty think?”

Patty is the National Head of the firm’s Emerging and Cross-Disciplinary Issues. She has over 25 years of experience representing and defending employers in nearly every form of employment litigation, including class actions. She represents and advises employers in federal and state administrative proceedings, in all forms of dispute resolution, including mediation and arbitration, and in managing all aspects of the employment relationship. She has represented employers before the EEOC, the DOL, the DOJ, OSHA, the OFCCP, and the NLRB, in addition to various state agencies.

Focusing on the best possible outcome for the client Patty takes a 360-degree view, working with employers to avoid litigation by developing effective policies and practices, including harassment policies, FMLA practices, attendance programs, affirmative action programs and wellness plans. She conducts proactive wage and hour audits, harassment investigations and compensation/pay equity reviews.

Patty is a core team member of the firm’s Disability, Leave & Health Management practice group and a leader of the Religious Accommodation Team. She provides practical advice to help companies respond to remote work challenges, paid and unpaid leave situations and the most challenging accommodation requests, all of which have been exacerbated by the pandemic, hybrid work and changes in the law.