In Bailey v. Metro Ambulance Services, Inc., (11th Cir., April 6, 2021), the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals held that an ambulance company had offered a Rastafarian paramedic a reasonable accommodation of his religious beliefs as required by Title VII. The court said in part:
AMR offered Bailey a reasonable accommodation. It provided Bailey with the opportunity to maintain his beard and to work on the non-emergency-transport side of its operations, for which DeKalb County’s facial-hair policy did not apply. Had Bailey accepted the offer, his salary, hours, and job description would have remained the same as if he had worked either exclusively on the emergency side or on both the emergency and non-emergency sides of AMR’s operations. As a result, his terms and conditions of employment would not have been affected by the accommodation AMR offered.
Judge Rosenbaum filed a concurring opinion. [Thanks to Joshua Sarnoff via Religionlaw for the lead.]
