When it comes to religious accommodation, sincerity is all you need
A government contractor in Virginia will pay a former employee $110,759 to settle a religious discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
The employee, a security guard at the company from July 2019 to August 2021, said shaving his beard violated his Christian beliefs. He said that a man should not do so except for medical reasons or when in mourning.
The employer, however, had a policy stating that workers had to be clean shaven except for mustaches and sideburns.
When the employee requested a religious exemption to grow a full beard, the company asked him to show a statement from a religious leader that he needed to do so, according to the EEOC lawsuit. The employee told the company he was nondenominational and did not have a religious leader he could ask because he didn’t belong to a particular church. He submitted a description of his beliefs, in which he said Biblical texts supported the idea that beards are “paramount.”
The employer then told the employee he would be disciplined if he arrived at work in violation of the grooming standard. He remained unwilling to shave his beard, according to the complaint. When the employee didn’t show up for his next shift, the company took him off the schedule and put him in a “leave of absence status,” the EEOC reported.
Constructive discharge
Eventually, the company stopped responding to the employee. He was constructively discharged, which means his resignation was not voluntary because it was caused, in part, by hostility or pressure from the employer to quit.
In its response to the EEOC’s complaint, the employer called the employee’s ideology a “purely personal preference, not a sincerely held religious belief.”
Mindy E. Weinstein, director of the EEOC’s Washington Field Office, said, “Religion under Title VII is broadly defined; it applies not only to mainstream religious beliefs that are part of a formal religious group, but also to all aspects of an individual’s religious observance, practice, and belief. When religion conflicts with a work requirement, employers must provide an accommodation, unless doing so would cause an undue hardship.”
After the EEOC requested a jury trial, the company agreed to pay the settlement, provide a new religious accommodation policy, and train employees on discrimination and retaliation.
Key to remember: A request by an employee for a religious accommodation must be provided if the belief is sincere, unless doing so would cause an undue hardship for an employer. The employee need not belong to a specific religion or adhere to beliefs sanctioned by a formal religious group.
