EEOC Sues Over Company's Refusal To Accommodate Religious Objection To Biometric Hand Scanning

The EEOC filed a lawsuit in a West Virginia federal district court on Monday against Consol Energy and Consolidation Coal Co. charging that they had violated Title VII by failing to accommodate a Christian employee's religious objections to biometric hand scanning to track his time and attendance. According to the Clarksburg Exponent Telegram, Beverly R. Butcher Jr., a laborer at the companies' mining operation, believed that hand scanning involved the Mark of the Beast.  The company, relying on the scanner vendor's interpretation of the Mark of the Beast in Book of Revelation 13:16, offered to allow Butcher to scan his left hand (since the Biblical verse refers only to the right hand). However Bucher wanted instead to either keep written records of his hours or check in and out with a supervisor. The company rejected this, which allegedly led to Bucher retiring earlier than he otherwise would have done.