Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Inc. (CHOA), a pediatric healthcare system based in Atlanta, violated federal law when it failed to provide a job applicant a disability-related accommodation and rescinded its offer of employment because the applicant had a disability, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit. According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, the applicant for a registration associate position requested a disability-related exemption to CHOA’s flu vaccination requirement based on a severe allergy to eggs, which are contained in the standard flu vaccination. The applicant provided medical documentation to support the accommodation request, but CHOA failed to provide a reasonable accommodation of a vaccine exemption or an egg-free flu vaccine. Instead, the EEOC said, CHOA rescinded its offer of employment based on the applicant’s disability and filled the position with an internal candidate who had “no issue” receiving the flu vaccine.
