A Chick-fil-A franchise is being sued by the EEOC for allegedly refusing a religious accommodation for a Christian employee. Given Chick-fil-A’s reputation as a faith-based company, that’s probably the last lawsuit you’d expect to see.
Chick-fil-A famously closes on Sundays, a nod back to founder S. Truett Cathy’s devout Christianity and his desire to ensure everyone had a day of rest. The company still sticks to that even though Cathy died in 2014, and people even jokingly refer to the restaurant as “the Lord’s chicken.”
According to a lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a particular franchisee, Hatch Trick, Inc, denied a religious accommodation to an employee.
According to the EEOC’s press release, the employee told Hatch Trick in her employment interview that due to her religious faith as a member of the United Church of God, which observes the Sabbath on Saturday, she would be unable to work on Saturday.
To keep reading, click here: Chick-fil-A Franchise Sued by the EEOC Over a Religious Accommodation. Here Are 5 Lessons for Employers
If that employee was looking fro a full time position at Chick-Fil-A, knowing that they already had Sunday off, and was using the religious need excuse for getting out of working Saturdays–in other words was stating quite clearly that their availability was only Monday through Friday, I would consider hiring but make sure that the employee knew that not being available for the busiest day if the work week might limit their potential to move up the line for promotion and also limit what available hours they could be scheduled to work, especially if they also limited their availability to leaving early. That’s not discrimination, that’s merely giving the employee a heads up about why they don’t get as many hours as expected with a limitation in availability. Seeing the employer for otherwise is just creating something out of nothing and should not fall under the EEOC regulations
On the flip side, this is a company that is fairly open about pushing certain religious views, including funding political campaigns to criminalize lifestyles they disagree with. The company also came under fire due to their attempts to have volunteers work for them, and to “pay” the volunteers in coupons for their food–fairly obvious and direct violations of employment laws. There have been other scandals before as well.
This is not making a mountain out of a molehill. This is a company with flagrant disregard for employment laws. If you constantly misbehave and flaunt the rules and regulations, you cannot be surprised when people react harshly to borderline cases. They have used up their goodwill and it’s absolutely justified for courts to view their actions in the harshest light.
It’s like Capone. Sure, tax evasion was almost certainly the least of his crimes, almost laughably irrelevant to the career of a violent gangster. But it was an opening, and the authorities quite properly took that opening.
I would also wonder whether “If you don’t violate your religious views you can’t move up the ladder” is legal. It’d be one thing if it was directly related to the job–someone with a religious taboo against blood transfusions won’t get far with organizations that do blood donations, for example–but this is fast food. I’m sorry, but if you’re a manager and can’t handle “I can’t work Saturdays” you’re incompetent, pure and simple. This is a perfectly normal sort of boundary for people in this line of work to have. If this was for child care, caring for a relative, going to school, etc., we wouldn’t even be having this conversation (or we’d be talking about how stupid the manager is). The only reason this is an issue is religion, and that makes it legally problematic. Enough to make it illegal? Eh, depends on where you are and what judge you get; there’s a broad gray area in the law. Enough that it should make any competent regional manager or executive question the manager’s competence? Absolutely. I’d be VERY curious what other policies and procedures this manager is ignoring.