In St. Luke's University Hospital v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, (PA Commonw. Court, Nov. 1, 2024), a Pennsylvania state appellate court upheld a decision by the Pennsylvania Unemployment Compensation Board of Review that a former employee of plaintiff hospital was entitled to unemployment benefits because her objections to Covid testing, which led to her firing, were religious. The hospital required all its employees to either obtain a Covid vaccination or, if they were granted a religious exemption, to undergo weekly nasal swab Covid testing. Employee Christine Puello objected to swab testing, contending in part:
Inserting a nasal swab with contaminants into my body violates my conscience and my sincerely held religious beliefs as I have previously described in my religious exemptions. I am willing to submit my saliva under observation for weekly COVID[-19] testing which eliminates any invasiveness and preserves my dignity of one less object/contaminant entering my body.
The court concluded:
While Claimant did cite safety concerns as a secondary reason for refusing nasal swab testing, the record makes clear that her primary objection was religious and not secular in nature. The Board credited Claimant’s testimony that this method of testing was prohibited by the tenets of her religion and determined she had good cause to refuse it.
