Two Las Vegas resort casinos, Aria Resort & Casino and Luxor Resort & Casino, resolved EEOC religious discrimination charges in conciliation. The charges included allegations the employers failed to provide reasonable religious accommodations to employees in connection with their COVID?19 vaccine mandates. There is no information in the source article that establishes when the employers' behavior occurred that is the basis of the charges.
After investigating, the EEOC found reasonable cause to believe that both resorts' management of religious accommodation requests failed to comply with Title VII, triggering the EEOC's conciliation process.
Aria and Luxor entered into separate conciliation agreements with the EEOC in which they agreed to implement training and compliance measures focused on religious accommodations and Title VII obligations, particularly for human resources personnel and others involved in managing accommodation requests.
The agreements include EEOC monitoring provisions designed to ensure that the resorts follow through on their commitment to improve how they receive, evaluate, and respond to religious accommodation requests going forward. No money will be paid, and the employer admitted no liability.
The settlements are consistent with a broader enforcement pattern in which the EEOC has recently obtained significant monetary and injunctive relief from another Law Vegas property, The Venetian. That claim included similar alleged failures to accommodate a range of employees' sincerely-held religious beliefs related to vaccine policies and alleged retaliation against workers who opposed the policies.
These cases highlight the EEOC's stated priority of intensified scrutiny on religious accommodations in the workplace.
Source: https://www.eeoc.gov/newsroom/two-las-vegas-strip-resort-casinos-settle-eeoc-religious-discrimination-charges
Commentary
Religious discrimination and vaccine mandates remain a high?risk issue for employers in every industry. Recent enforcement activity against Las Vegas resort casinos highlights how regulators are scrutinizing how organizations manage religious accommodation requests in practice, not just on paper.
In June 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court changed the religious accommodation standard under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act that employers and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) relied upon for more than 46 years. Groff v. DeJoy, No. 22-174 (June 29, 2023).
Under the new standard, "'undue hardship' is shown when a burden is substantial in the overall context of an employer's business." Without further definitions from the U.S. Supreme Court, this means accommodations are to be determined on a case-by-case basis.
From a loss prevention standpoint, the first line of defense is a consistently-applied process for receiving and evaluating religious accommodation requests tied to vaccine requirements, including who receives requests, what language can trigger a request, and how decisions are documented so they can be defended later if challenged.
Training is essential to reducing exposure. Training must extend beyond human resources into line management, supervisors, and to anyone who interacts with employees because casual comments or inconsistent enforcement can quickly become evidence of discriminatory motive.
Training should emphasize how to quickly refer all requests for an accommodation to those authorized in the organization to engage in the interactive process to determine if there is a reasonable accommodation. Training should include how to avoid retaliatory conduct such as discipline or schedule changes after an employee requests an accommodation based on religion.
Employers should also periodically audit their vaccine?related practices and outcomes to identify patterns that could suggest bias, such as unusually high denial rates for religious requests in a particular location, inconsistent documentation, or adverse actions clustering around employees who opposed vaccine policies on religious grounds.
Where concerns are identified, leadership should promptly revise forms, workflows and communications, and consider using outside counsel or consultants to test whether the accommodation process aligns with Title VII.
The final takeaway is that the likelihood of discrimination risk can be reduced by following accommodation policies and procedures.
Additional Sources and References: https://www.eeoc.gov/religious-discrimination
