Rex Healthcare, Inc., a private, non-profit healthcare provider in Raleigh, will pay $150,000 and furnish other relief to settle a US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) religious accommodation lawsuit, the federal agency announced. According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, Rex Healthcare unlawfully denied a remote employee’s request to be exempted from the provider’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy as a religious accommodation. Although in 2019 and 2020 Rex Healthcare approved the employee’s requests for a religious exemption from the company’s flu vaccine requirement, it denied each of her four requests for an exemption from the COVID-19 vaccine requirement, rejecting her sincerely held religious belief that receiving vaccines is inconsistent with God’s will, and despite the information she provided in support of her position. Ultimately, the company fired her in November 2021 for refusing to comply with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, according to the suit.