EEOC Files One, Settles One, Religious Discrimination Suit

The EEOC yesterday filed a lawsuit against UPS, the nation's largest parcel delivery service charging religious discrimination.  According to the EEOC press release:

United Parcel Service, Inc. prohibits male employees in customer contact or supervisory positions from wearing beards or growing their hair below collar length. According to EEOC's complaint, since at least 2004, UPS has failed to hire or promote individuals whose religious practices conflict with its appearance policy and has failed to provide religious accommodations to its appearance policy at facilities throughout the United States.

Also yesterday, the EEOC announced the settlement of a lawsuit brought against a Dunkin' Donut franchisee in Asheville, North Carolina. The company's plant manager offered a donut maker position to Darrell Littrell, a Seventh-Day Adventist, but then withdrew the offer when Littrell told the manager that he could not begin work on Friday afternoon because it conflicted with his Sabbath. Under the settlement, the company will pay Littrell $22,000 in damages, and will enter a 5-year consent decree barring religious discrimination and requiring policy changes, employee training and reporting.