Greyhound Settles EEOC Religious Accommodation Lawsuit

The EEOC announced this week that Greyhound Lines has agreed to settle a religious discrimination lawsuit brought against it on behalf of a Muslim woman who, after being accepted into the bus line's driver training program, was told she could not wear an abaya. The abaya is a loose fitting outer garment worn because of religious beliefs regarding modesty. Greyhound will pay $45,000 in damages, and will train its human resource and hiring personnel on handling of religious accommodations.

Christian Employers Group Challenges HHS And EEOC Protection for Transgender Health Care

Suit was filed this week in a North Dakota federal district court by a Christian membership ministry that serves for-profit and non-profit employers challenging two federal rules on health care coverage for gender transition surgery. At issue are (1) an EEOC interpretation of Title VII that requires employers to cover gender transition services in their health plans; and (2) An HHS non-discrimination requirement that forces religiously-affiliated healthcare providers to perform gender transition surgeries, procedures, counseling, and treatments. The complaint (full text) Christian Employers Alliance v. U.S. EEOC, (D ND, filed 10/18/21), alleges in part:

31. CEA members believe and teach that each human being bears the image and likeness of God, and that the two, distinct biological sexes of male and female are complementary and together reflect the image and nature of God.

32. CEA members believe and teach that rejection of one’s biological sex is a rejection of the image of God within that person.

The suit alleges violations of RFRA, free exercise and free speech protections. ADF issued a press release announcing the filing of the lawsuit.

Texas Sues EEOC Over Interpretation of Transgender Rights

The state of Texas this week filed suit in federal district court challenging an EEOC Guidance document (full text) issued in June interpreting the application of the Supreme Court's Bostock decision to rights of transgender employees under Title VII.  The complaint (full text) in State of Texas v. EEOC, (ND TX, filed 9/20/2021), contends that the EEOC's interpretation of requirements for  usage of bathrooms, dress codes and pronoun usage misstates the law, violates the First Amendment and was adopted without following proper procedures. The Texas Attorney General's office issued a press release announcing the filing of the lawsuit.

EEOC Suit Protecting Religious Objector To Fingerprinting Is Settled

The EEOC announced last week that Minnesota- based AscensionPoint Recovery Services has settled an EEOC religious discrimination lawsuit brought against it by agreeing to pay $65,000 in damages and implementing changes to its policies. According to the EEOC, the company fired a Christian employee who objected to being fingerprinted:

The fingerprinting requirement was prompted by a background check procedure requested by of one of the company’s clients. Shortly after the Christian employee informed APRS that having his fingerprints captured was contrary to his religious practices, APRS fired him. APRS did so without asking the client whether an exemption was available as a religious accommodation, and despite the fact that alternatives to fingerprinting were available.

20 State AG's Sue Feds Over LGBTQ Anti-Discrimination Interpretations

A 20-state coalition led by Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slattery filed suit in a Tennessee federal district court challenging interpretations of anti-discrimination laws by the Department of Education and the EEOC. In response to an Executive Order issued by President Biden, these two agencies issued interpretations protecting against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The complaint (full text) in State of  Tennessee v. U.S. Department of Education, (ED TN, filed 8/30/2021), contends in part:

[T]he Department of Education ... and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ..., each flouting procedural requirements in their rush to overreach, issued “interpretations” of federal antidiscrimination law far beyond what the statutory text, regulatory requirements, judicial precedent, and the Constitution permit.

The relief requested by plaintiffs particularly focuses on concerns over transgender rights under Title VII and Title IX. 

Tennessee's Attorney General issued a press release announcing the filing of the lawsuit. 

Samuels Confirmed For Second Term On EEOC

According to a press release from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. Senate yesterday confirmed the nomination of Jocelyn Samuels to serve a second term as an EEOC Commissioner. She will serve a 5-year term and continue to serve as Vice-Chair of the EEOC. Before joining the EEOC, Samuels was Executive Director of UCLA's Williams Institute which conducts research on sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy. The EEOC enforces federal laws barring employment discrimination, including religious discrimination.

EEOC Complaint Charges Stanford University With Anti-Jewish Hostile Work Environment

 As reported by The Forward, a complaint was filed last week with the EEOC (full text and summary of June 15 complaint) on behalf of a psychiatrist and a clinical social worker at Stanford University  Counseling & Psychological Services division charging that a hostile work environment has been created for Jewish employees.  The complaint alleges in part:

... Stanford University ... has permitted the DEI [Diversity, Equity and Inclusion] program to be perverted so that it accomplishes precisely the opposite of its intended aims....

... [T]he CAPS DEI program has maligned and marginalized Jews on the basis of religion, race and ethnic identity by castigating Jews as white, powerful and privileged members of society who contribute to systemic racism and denying and attempting to erase Jewish ancestral identity. In addition, the DEI program has denigrated the concept of Jewish victimhood and deliberately excluded anti-Semitism from the program’s agenda.... 

The CAPS DEI program... relies upon racial and ethnic stereotyping and scapegoating by describing all Jews as white or white-passing and therefore complicit in anti-Black racism. Jewish staff have been pressured to attend the DEI program’s racially segregated “whiteness accountability” affinity group, which was created for “staff who hold privilege via white identity” and “who are white identified, may be newly grappling with or realizing their white identity, or identify as or are perceived as white presenting or passing (aka seen as white by others even though you hold other identities).”

EEOC Sues Over Employer's Failure To Accommodate Religious Objection To Finger Printing

 The EEOC announced last week that it has filed suit in a Minnesota federal district court against AscensionPoint Recovery Services alleging religious discrimination:

APRS had requested that its employees be finger-printed as a result of a background check requirement of one of its clients. Shortly after the Christian employee informed APRS that having his fingerprints captured was contrary to his religious practices, APRS fired him.... APRS did so without asking the client whether an exemption was available as a religious accommodation, and despite the fact that alternatives to fingerprinting are available.

Meat Packing Company Settles EEOC Suit Charging Discrimination Against Somali Muslim Employees

The EEOC announced yesterday that the meat processing company JBS Swift & Co. has settled an EEOC lawsuit against it that charged discrimination against Muslim employees who were immigrants from Somalia and were black. The EEOC had charged that the prayer obligations of Muslim employees were not accommodated, and that these employees were harassed when they tried to pray during regular breaks and at other times. It also charged that JBS shut off water fountains during Ramadan 2008, which stopped Muslim employees from getting water after fasting and from washing before prayers. JBS will pay up to $5.5 million to the 300 employees who are eligible to share in the judgment. According to the EEOC:

JBS will make all former employees covered under the decree eligible for rehire. It will review, update, and post its anti-discrimination policies; maintain a 24-hour hotline for reporting discrimination; investigate employee complaints; support a diversity committee; and provide annual trainings to all employees on the laws prohibiting employment discrimination. JBS also must provide clean, quiet, and appropriate locations other than bathrooms for employees’ religious observances, including daily prayers, and must also allow employees to use locker rooms or other locations that do not pose a safety risk for observation of their religious practices.

EEOC Adopts Resolution Condemning Antisemitism

The EEOC announced yesterday that it has unanimously adopted a Resolution (full text) condemning Antisemitism. The Resolution reads in part:

[T]he U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission condemns in the strongest possible terms the recent violence, harassment, and acts of bias against Jewish persons; expresses our heartfelt sympathy to and solidarity with victims and their families; and reaffirms our commitment to combat religious, ethnic, and national origin-based harassment and all other forms of unlawful discrimination and to ensure equal opportunity, inclusion, and dignity for all throughout America’s workplaces.

EEOC General Counsel Fired By Biden

Yesterday morning, President Biden, through an e-mail (full text) from the White House Office of Personnel, requested the resignation of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission General Counsel Sharon Gustafson. Gustafson was a Trump appointee. As pointed out by the Washington Post in its report on these developments:

Gustafson was confirmed by the Senate to a four-year position in August 2019. She had raised the hackles of civil rights, LGBTQ and women’s groups during her confirmation hearing, by what they saw as “evasive” answers she gave about the rights of LGBTQ workers.

In a lengthy letter to the President (full text) just hours after the request for her resignation, Gustafson refused to resign. Her letter reads in part:

I am transmitting with this letter my Work Group's "Religious Discrimination in Employment: General Counsel Listening Sessions Final Report." This report and a related press release were published on the EEOC's website on January 13, 2021. On February 4. 2021-- shortly after your inauguration-- the report and press release were removed from the EEOC's website.... I can only assume that my resignation would be followed by similar suppression of our work promoting religious freedom.

The White House Office of Personnel responded yesterday to Gustafson with a brief e-mail (full text) informing her that her employment was terminated as of 5:00 pm that day.

2020 EEOC Enforcement Data Released

The EEOC last week released Fiscal Year 2020 Enforcement and Litigation Data. It shows that 3.6% of the claims filed by the EEOC allege religious discrimination. The agency has also published a detailed breakdown of how the EEOC resolved the charges.

EEOC Sues On Behalf of Seventh Day Adventist Hotel Employee

EEOC announced yesterday that it has filed a religious discrimination suit against a Florida resort hotel, Noble House Solé. The suit alleges that a new director of housekeeping fired a Seventh Day Adventist room attendant who refused to work on Saturdays. For the prior ten months, the employee's Sabbath observance had been accommodated.

EEOC Lawsuit On Behalf of Fired Seventh Day Adventist Employee Settled

The EEOC announced this week that PepsiCo subsidiary Frito-Lay, Inc. has agreed to a 3-year consent decree requiring it to pay $50,000 to settle a religious discrimination lawsuit filed by the EEOC. The suit was filed on behalf of a Seventh Day Adventist employee of the company. The newly-promoted employee was fired after he refused on religious grounds to attend two Saturday training sessions. The consent decree also requires specialized training of human resources personnel and review at the regional staff level of future requests for religious accommodation. The EEOC commended the company for its cooperation in resolving the lawsuit.

EEOC Sues On Behalf of Seventh Day Adventist

 The EEOC announced yesterday that it has filed suit in a Texas federal district court against Quest Diagnostics for refusing to accommodate the religious beliefs of a long-time employee. The EEOC said in part:

[T]he employee, a phlebotomist, is a practicing Seventh-day Adventist who began working for Quest Diagnostics in 2008. The phlebotomist’s religious beliefs prevent her from working on her Sabbath from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. Quest honored her request for religious accommodation not to work on her Sabbath for the first 10 years of her employment. But in her 11th year with the company, Quest told her it would no longer accommodate her. After the revocation of her accommodation, she was forced to call “out” on each Saturday shift she was scheduled to work until she was ultimately fired by Quest.

EEOC Sues Over Failure To Accommodate Seventh Day Adventist

The EEOC announced this week that it has filed a Title VII lawsuit against Texas-based Frito-Lay, Inc. for failing to accommodate the religious needs of a Seventh Day Adventist employee working in Florida. The Commission explained:

[A] West Palm Beach Frito-Lay warehouse employee applied for and received a promotion to route sales representative. The employee completed approximately five weeks of training without having to train on Saturdays. However, despite learning he could not work on Saturdays be­cause of his Seventh-day Adventist religious beliefs, Frito-Lay sched­uled him to train on Saturdays and terminated him after he failed to report to training on two consecutive Saturdays.

EEOC Sues Over Health Care Company's Refusal To Accommodate Modest Dress Beliefs

The EEOC announced that it filed a religious discrimination suit Wednesday in a Texas federal district court against Wellpath, LLC, a provider of health care in correctional facilities. Describing the suit, the EEOC said in part:

[A] nurse who is a practicing Apostolic Pentecostal Christian was hired by Wellpath to work in the GEO Central Texas Correctional Facility.... Before reporting to work, the nurse told a Wellpath human resources employee that her religious beliefs require her to dress modestly and to wear a scrub skirt instead of scrub pants while at work. In response, Wellpath denied the request for her religion-based accommodation and rescinded the nurse’s job offer.

EEOC Sues On Behalf of Employees Who Refuse To Wear Company Aprons That Contain Rainbow Emblem

The EEOC announced yesterday that it has filed suit against a Conway, Arkansas Kroger store charging that it violated Title VII when it disciplined and then discharged two women employees who refused to wear Kroger aprons that display a rainbow-colored heart emblem.  The women believe that the apron endorses LGBTQ values and that wearing it violates their religious beliefs. Kroger refused the women's offers to wear other aprons or to cover the emblem.

McDonald's Franchisee Settles EEOC Religious Discrimination Suit

The EEOC announced yesterday that an Orlando, Florida McDonald's franchisee has settled a religious discrimination lawsuit filed against it by the EEOC.  The restaurant refused to hire a Jewish applicant as a part-time maintenance worker because the applicant would not shave his beard. It refused to create an accommodation to its policy that all employees must be completely clean shaven, even though the applicant offered to wear his beard in a net.  A 2½ year consent decree gives damages of $69,555 to the applicant and requires the franchisee to change its grooming policies, conduct anti-discrimination training and take other compliance steps.

EEOC Sues Airline Over Requiring Pilot To Attend Religious AA Program

The EEOC this week filed a lawsuit against United Airlines charging that it did not adequately accommodate the religious beliefs of a Buddhist pilot.  In its press release, the EEOC said in part:

United operates a program for its pilots with substance abuse problems that provides them treatment and sponsors them to obtain new medical certificates from the FAA. One of the requirements of United’s program is that pilots regularly attend Alcoholics Anonymous (“AA”). The pilot, who is Buddhist, objected to the religious content of AA and sought to substitute regular attendance at a Buddhism-based peer support group. United refused to accommodate his religious objection and, as a result, the pilot was unable to obtain a new FAA medical certificate permitting him to fly again, the agency charged....

 “Employers have the affirmative obligation to modify their policies to accommodate employees’ religious beliefs,” said EEOC New York Regional Attorney Jeffrey Burstein. “Despite this obligation, United was inflexible and refused to make a modest change its program that would have caused them no hardship.”

Paddle Your Own Kanoo reports on the suit.