Unemployment Benefits for Employee Fired Due to Refusal, for Secular Reasons, to be Vaccinated Against the Flu

Valent v. Board of Review, 436 N.J. Super. 41 (App. Div. 2014).  June Valent is a registered nurse who worked at Hackettstown Community Hospital.  In order to minimize the incidence of flu among hospital employees, the hospital promulgated a policy requiring all hospital employees to get vaccinated against the flu “unless there [was] a documented medical or religious exemption.”  Exempted employees were required to wear a face mask during the entire flu season.  The policy itself stated that failure to comply would result in discipline “up to and including termination.”

Valent refused to be vaccinated, but did not give a religious or medical reason.  She did, however, agree to wear a face mask during the flu season, as the policy required.  The hospital terminated her for failing to comply with the policy’s requirement of having a religious or medical reason for declining vaccination.  Valent sought unemployment benefits, but the Board of Review concluded that she was not eligible, based on “simple misconduct connected to the work.”  The hospital’s policy was reasonable, the Board determined, and Valent’s failure to provide a religious or medical reason for refusing vaccination disqualified her for unemployment benefits.

Valent appealed, pro se, and the Appellate Division, applying the deferential “arbitrary and capricious” standard of review, reversed in an opinion by Judge Fuentes.  In order for Valent to be disqualified for unemployment benefits based on her violation of her employer’s rule, the hospital had to carry the burden of showing that her conduct “adversely impacts the employer or the individual’s ability to perform the duties of his or her job.”  The hospital did not carry that burden here.  Valent was willing to wear the face mask as required of those who declined vaccination.  The hospital’s policy, with its exemption only for religious (or medical) reasons, violated the First Amendment by “discriminat[ing] against an employee’s right to refuse to be vaccinated based only on secular reasons.”