Columbia SC Radio: Fired Talker Sues Cumulus Over Vax Mandate

Sports talk host Tim Hill has filed a civil rights lawsuit against  Cumulus Meida for firing him in 2021 after he refused to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Hill co-hosted morning drive and was the program director for WNKT 107.5 The Game in Columbia, South Carolina.

In the lawsuit, Hill is claiming a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In August of 2021, Cumulus notified employees that everyone had to be vaccinated two weeks before the company’s return to office date on Oct. 11. Hill said that he was able to work from home for 18 months beginning in April of 2020.

Tim Hill

Hill continued that he sought a religious exemption to taking the vaccine as a Catholic, but that the request was rejected with a Cumulus official emailing that this “would be an undue hardship on the company due to the nature of Plaintiff’s employment position,” without addressing his religious claims one way or another.

Hill claimed that he proposed alternative solutions such as continuing to work from home or maintaining social distance, wearing a mask and paying out of pocket for an air filtration system, but that these ideas were “summarily rejected… without engaging in any interactive process.”

“Cumulus wrongfully terminated Plaintiff based on his sincerely held religious beliefs,” the suit says, adding the vaccine mandate “negatively impacts people with sincerely held religious beliefs [and] violates Title VII, which requires an interactive process to identify a reasonable accommodation to a work policy.”

Hill had a contract that paid base compensation $65,000 per year plus guaranteed endorsement incentives through May of 2023, and he is seeking backpay and front pay, plus punitive, emotional distress and compensatory damages.  Hill is also seeking interest and attorney fees.