Employer Vaccine Mandate 2022

Labor Disputes

Discrimination Charges

Agency Charges

Government Vaccine Mandates

What else we’re watching

Professional services

Healthcare (incl. Assisted Living)

Private

Public

Industry

Public or private employer

State and Local

Federal

Employer-imposed

Vaccine Mandate Challenges by the Numbers

Labor union

Multi-plaintiff (including advocacy groups)

Class action

Individual plaintiff

Who are the plaintiffs?

Executive Orders and Federal Rulemaking

In addition to challenges to individual employer-imposed mandates, a wave of lawsuits have sought to invalidate Biden Administration efforts to increase the nation’s vaccination rate, including executive orders and agency-issued mandates. Many state and local governments also have enacted mandatory vaccination requirements, while a number of states have passed laws curtailing COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

South Carolina Anti-Vaccine Mandate Law: Implications for Private Employers

Need to Navigate Regulatory Patchwork After Judge Strikes Down Federal COVID-19 Mask Mandate

Permanent Healthcare COVID-19 Standard Update: OSHA Sets Hearing Date on Deviations to Proposed Rule

Indiana Enacts New Law on Employer COVID-19 Vaccination Mandates

More COVID-19 insights

Agency Charges

More than 500 lawsuits have been filed challenging vaccine mandates in some fashion. These are likely just the tip of the iceberg, however, as there are thousands of such complaints lurking “beneath the surface,” in the form of agency charges and alternative avenues for resolving disputes, such as arbitration.

Discrimination Charges

One of the ways that employees are challenging employer-imposed vaccine mandates is to allege that the employer has failed to accommodate a disability or religious belief that they claim conflicts with a vaccination requirement. These complaints against private employers generally arise under Title VII of the Civil Right Act of 1964 (Title VII), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and/or attendant state laws.

Labor Disputes

Labor unions have filed a number of lawsuits challenging employer vaccine mandates, mostly against public employers. Unions have filed charges against private employers with the NLRB and initiated arbitration against employers of all types to challenge implementation of vaccination mandates and other COVID related policies.

Nationwide Injunction on COVID-19 Vaccine for Federal Contractors Applies to Vaccine Requirement Only

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster has signed into law House Bill 3126, which has implications for public and private employers that continue to require employees in South Carolina to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Jackson Lewis Named Most Active Defense Counsel for COVID-19-Related Litigation

When a district court judge in Florida lifted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) federal COVID-19 mask mandate on April 19, 2022, the Transportation Safety Administration stopped enforcing it. However, the judge’s ruling left it up to airlines and local transit agencies to decide how to respond.

Vaccine Mandates Don’t Eliminate the Duty to Bargain in Unionized Workplaces

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has partially reopened the record on the rulemaking for the permanent healthcare COVID-19 standard, known as the rule on “Occupational Exposure to COVID-19 in Healthcare Settings” (docket number OSHA-2020-0004). While the proposal generally tracks the agency’s expired 2021 healthcare emergency temporary rule (ETS), it also potentially departs from the ETS in some areas.

OSHA Launches COVID-19 Inspection Initiative for Healthcare Employers

Employer Vaccine Mandate Challenges

more than 40

between 20 to 40

less than 20

Number of lawsuits filed per state

Education (K-12 and higher ed)

Transportation

Manufacturing

Police/fire

What are the claims?

Employees are challenging employers’ vaccine mandates both on their face and as applied, particularly with respect to employers’ failure to grant exemptions to the vaccination requirement.

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What is the status of these lawsuits?

100

150

200

140

Dispositive motion granted to defendant Settled or voluntarily dismissed

Ongoing litigation Cases on appeal

TRO granted TRO denied

Prelim injunction granted Preliminary injunction denied

Class certification granted Class certification denied

Which employers are facing lawsuits?

Labor dispute/CBA breach

Wrongful discharge/retaliation

Religious accommodation/discrimination

Disability accommodation/discrimination

Privacy violations

Constitutional claims (against public and private employers)

Common law/contract

56%

15%

43%

12%

20%

Vaccination mandates have brought a number of challenges: a wave of accommodation requests to manage, a slew of state and local laws to follow, and an ever-changing legal landscape for employers that are obligated to comply—or not—with a variety of federal executive orders and directives. Here, we provide an overview of the litigation resulting from these challenges, with a focus on the cases arising from vaccination requirements implemented by individual employers.

Employers are defending complaints brought by individual employees and multi-plaintiff suits ranging from two employees to hundreds (and, in many such cases, advocacy groups have joined these lawsuits—or are leading the charge). Employers are facing putative class actions and litigation by labor unions suing on behalf of union-represented employees. In a few cases, state attorneys general have filed suit against private employers pursuant to new state laws prohibiting such vaccine mandates.

In addition to the challenges to employer-imposed vaccine mandates, there has been a deluge of complaints opposing federal government mandates; mandates and restrictions imposed by state and local governments and government bodies, including school districts; and vaccine requirements for college and university students.

Employees are challenging employers’ vaccination mandates both on their face—contending the policy itself is unlawful—and as applied, particularly with respect to employers’ failure to grant accommodations or exemptions to the vaccination requirement. Complaints typically allege multiple legal claims. The data below show the percentage of lawsuits that assert the following types of claims:

Other

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Total vaccine mandate suits:

Total employer mandate suits:

52%

27%

11%

58%

42%

516

789

28%

53%

Where are the lawsuits filed?

Who are the plaintiffs?

Which employers are facing lawsuits?

What are the claims?

What else we're watching

More COVID-19 Insights

Where are the lawsuits filed?

The map below provides a state-by-state breakdown of the number of lawsuits filed over employers’ mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies.

TOP

The information on this site was last updated June 22, 2022 and is based on civil complaints published by Courthouse News Service. It is not intended to provide an exhaustive list of COVID-19 vaccine mandate-related employment complaints.

City/county (other than police/fire)

Other

Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb has signed into law House Bill 1001, curbing COVID-19 vaccine mandates by employers.

Under the law, which went into effect immediately, most Indiana employers who require employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccine must allow employees to opt out from the requirement based on any of the following: (1) medical reasons; (2) religious reasons; or (3) employee immunity from COVID-19 based on a prior infection with COVID-19.

Nationwide Injunction on COVID-19 Vaccine for Federal Contractors Applies to Vaccine Requirement Only

Medical/pharma

State government employer

Other

Labor dispute/CBA breach

Common law/contract

25%

32%

10%

14%

10%