EEOC Sues Silver Cross Hospital Over Vaccine Mandate
Federal lawsuit alleges that hospital denied a religious accommodation and fired employee for asking
CHICAGO / March 27, 2026 – Silver Cross Hospital, based in New Lenox, Illinois, violated federal law when it failed to provide a reasonable accommodation to an employee who requested to be exempt from receiving the COVID-19 vaccine because of her religious beliefs, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit announced today.
According to the EEOC’s suit, a certified surgical technologist first requested a religious accommodation from the hospital’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate in August 2021 because of her Christian beliefs. The hospital denied her request for an accommodation, and retaliated by terminating her employment in November 2021, even though she could have been accommodated without undue hardship, according to the suit.
“Workplace rules like vaccination requirements—while not inherently discriminatory—must adhere to Title VII’s protections for religious accommodation,” said Catherine Eschbach, acting general counsel for the EEOC. “These protections are a core safeguard of federal civil rights law. Where an accommodation can be provided without undue hardship, the law requires it. Unfortunately, that did not occur in this case.”
Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination because of religion as well as retaliation for complaining about it. The EEOC filed the lawsuit (EEOC v. Silver Cross Hospital, Civil Action No. 1:26-cv-3343) in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process. The EEOC seeks monetary damages for the employee, including compensatory and punitive damages, and injunctive relief to prevent such unlawful conduct in the future.
For more information on religious discrimination and retaliation, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/religious-discrimination and https://www.eeoc.gov/retaliation.
The EEOC’s Chicago District Office has jurisdiction over Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and North and South Dakota, with Area Offices in Milwaukee and Minneapolis.
The EEOC is the sole federal agency authorized to investigate and litigate against businesses and other private sector employers for violations of federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. For public sector employers, the EEOC shares jurisdiction with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. The EEOC also is responsible for coordinating the federal government’s employment antidiscrimination effort. More information about the EEOC is available at www.eeoc.gov.
Source: U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC.gov)
