Takeaway: A hospital's discharge of an administrative employee because she refused to get a flu vaccine was not disability bias, because the employee failed to show that she had a disability as defined under California law.
A Los Angeles hospital did not discriminate against an administrative employee based on disability when it fired her after she refused to get a flu vaccine, a California appeals court recently ruled. Although the employee's doctor wrote a note recommending an exemption to the hospital's vaccine requirement for various reasons, including the employee's history of cancer and general allergies, none of the reasons were a medically recognized contraindication to getting the vaccine. The trial court correctly concluded that the employee did not show that she had a disability, and so the hospital did not violate California's Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) in terminating her, the appellate court said.
The employee began working for the hospital in 2000. Throughout her tenure, she worked in an administrative role with no patient care responsibilities. Her office was in an administration building about a mile from the main medical campus, though she occasionally visited the main medical campus in her capacity as an employee.
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