MEMPHIS — Triad National Security, LLC, a laboratory management company based in Los Alamos, New Mexico, agreed to resolve charges of discrimination filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for $2.8 million and other relief, the federal agency announced today.

The EEOC received multiple charges of discrimination alleging that since at least 2021 Triad denied employees religious and/or disability accommodations to the company’s vaccine mandate and testing policy and retaliated against them. The EEOC’s systemic investigation found reasonable cause to believe that Triad discriminated against employees by denying accommodations for their sincerely held religious beliefs and/or disabilities under the company’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy.

Denial of religious and/or disability-related accommodations, absent undue hardship to the employer, violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on religion, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits discrimination based on disability.

“These allegations serve as a powerful reminder that religious and disability accommodations are not optional — they are protected by the civil rights laws,” said EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas. “The EEOC will not hesitate to take action to defend the rights of all employees of faith and workers with disabilities when they are facing discrimination in the workplace.”

The settlement with the EEOC resolved several individual discrimination charges filed by employees who worked at the Triad facilities in Los Alamos. The company chose to voluntarily resolve the issue with the EEOC, without admission of guilt, to avoid an extended dispute.

Following the EEOC’s investigation, the parties engaged in a pre-litigation conciliation process which resulted in a two-year agreement requiring Triad to provide back pay and compensatory damages to the individuals. The agreement also requires Triad to train human resources personnel on religious- and disability-related accommodation request policies.

Please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc-disability-related-resources and https://www.eeoc.gov/religious-discrimination for more information on disability and religious discrimination. For more information on retaliation, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/retaliation.

The EEOC’s Memphis District Office has jurisdiction over Tennessee, Arkansas and Northern Mississippi with area offices in Nashville and Little Rock.

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.