Court Says Employer Has Burden Under Title VII To Attempt Accommodation

In EEOC v. Texas Hydraulics, Inc., (ED TN, April 16, 2008), a Tennessee federal district court denied defendant's motion for summary judgment in a Title VII religious discrimination lawsuit. Keith Vogeler, a production employee, would not work from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday for religious reasons. Vogeler was dismissed by Texas Hydraulics after refusing to work on seven different Saturdays. The court held that, under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the employer has the burden of showing that it offered the employee a reasonable accommodation or at least considered possible options that would have accommodated an employee and that these options were rejected because they would have caused an undue hardship. Here Texas Hydraulics offered no evidence that it attempted to find a reasonable accommodation. The case is discussed in last Monday's BNA Corporate Law Daily [subscription required].