Medline Defeats Former Worker’s Vaccine Disability Bias Claims

Medline Industries Inc. fought off an ex-employee’s disability bias case after demonstrating that accommodating the worker’s stated inability to undergo vaccination against Covid-19 in her preferred manner would have imposed an undue hardship.

The medical supplier showed that allowing the worker to remain unvaccinated in a customer-facing role would put patients and staff at those customers’ facilities—primarily nursing homes—at increased risk during the Covid-19 pandemic, the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois said.

Plaintiff Nicole Coggin, a Medline sales representative, unsuccessfully sought a disability-based accommodation to the company’s vaccination requirement in late 2021 because of a ...