The Trump administration is using the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to punish businesses that required employees to get COVID vaccinations in order to protect public health. These actions appear to be inspired by the vaccine denialism of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and claims of religious discrimination from evangelicals.
An international tech firm will pay $15 million to settle claims it violated employees’ religious and disability by mandating COVID-19 vaccinations during the pandemic, according to the EEOC.
The federal agency did not name the firm, identifying it only as a “leading global technology company” with operations in a dozen U.S. states. The commission said the voluntary agreement will dismiss charges filed against the company in the commission’s Phoenix office in 2021.
Andrea Lucas
“In its investigation, the EEOC found reasonable cause to believe that the company discriminated against a class of employees on the basis of religion and disability by denying their COVID-19 vaccine exemption requests and terminating employees who declined to receive vaccines,” the agency said in the March 24 announcement of the settlement. “The company chose to voluntarily resolve this issue with the EEOC, without admission of liability, to avoid an extended dispute.”
The company was accused of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by infringing on employees’ religious beliefs and also of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to make special accommodations for employees with special needs related to the vaccines, the agency said.
“There was no pandemic exception to workers’ civil rights and liberties,” EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas said. “Under President Trump’s leadership, the EEOC is focused on accountability and delivering results for American workers. Title VII and the ADA require employers to provide reasonable accommodations for sincerely held religious beliefs and qualifying disabilities unless they can demonstrate undue hardship. When employers fail to meet that obligation, the commission will act.”
The three-year conciliation arrangement that resolves the issue includes $15 million paid to multiple employees in addition to an agreement to review policies to guarantee compliance with federal anti-discrimination law, the commission said. In addition, the company agreed to post notices about equal opportunity employment rights.
While it is common for employers to exercise their right to anonymity in agreeing to voluntary settlements, it is rare for the commission to make them public, Reuters reported.
The news agency examined 10 years of EEOC news releases and found just one instance, a 2016 case in which a Colorado restaurant paid $50,000 to settle charges of wage theft against Hispanic workers.
But the commission may well have exposed its political motivations in reporting other vaccine-related EEOC cases concluded since Donald Trump returned to office.
“Following widespread government and employer COVID-19 vaccine mandates during the Biden administration, the EEOC received more than 10,000 religious accommodation charges related to this issue as well as more than 6,000 disability accommodation charges,” the commission said in an August 2025 news release.
“During the previous administration, workers’ religious protections too often took a back seat to woke policies.”
“During the previous administration, workers’ religious protections too often took a back seat to woke policies. Under my leadership, the EEOC is restoring evenhanded enforcement of Title VII — ensuring that workers are not forced to choose between their paycheck and their faith.”
EEOC said it recovered $55 million for workers affected by vaccine mandates during the first 200 days of Trump’s presidency, including several from major hospital systems.
“During the Biden administration, almost all the agency’s important work enforcing Title VII in the wake of COVID-19 vaccine mandates happened both silently and too slowly. No longer. Under the Trump administration, the EEOC is taking bold and aggressive steps to remedy the widespread civil rights harms during the pandemic — the first public fruits of which are reflected below.”
The EEOC action corresponds with wider administration efforts to bust vaccination mandates. In September, the Civil Rights Office of the Department of Health and Human Services warned states to respect religious belief in administering vaccines to children.
“Today’s letter makes clear that providers must respect state laws protecting religious and conscience-based exemptions to vaccine mandates,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in regard to the Vaccines for Children Program. “States have the authority to balance public health goals with individual freedom, and honoring those decisions builds trust. Protecting both public health and personal liberty is how we restore faith in our institutions and Make America Healthy Again.”
Office of Civil Rights Director Paula Stannard added that exemptions also must be made for people who object to the way vaccines are manufactured: “They may have specific concerns that focus on the development or manufacturing of particular vaccines,” Stannard said. “For example, parents may object to immunizing their children with vaccines historically derived from aborted fetal cell lines, based on their sincere and deeply held beliefs about the sanctity of life.”
Separately, a federal judge recently issued a ruling preventing Kennedy from implementing a series of decisions on vaccines and immunizations, The New York Times reported.
The decision stemmed from a lawsuit filed by numerous medical groups. The ruling also said the administration did not base its decision to limit COVID vaccine availability on science.
“This is a significant victory for public health, evidence-based medicine, the rule of law, and the American people,” said Richard Hughes, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.