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The Great EEOC Roundup: January Edition


After a few months of not posting the EEOC Roundup, I wanted to get back into the swing of things and highlight a few EEOC matters from the past month.  Coincidentally enough, two of the cases that I wanted to highlight both deal with religious discrimination claims involving the same religion, Rastafarian.

As always, there are some recent EEOC cases that jump out at me when I review recent developments on that front.  Below are a couple EEOC cases and settlements that stand out:


Triangle Catering Sued for Religious Discrimination

Recently, the EEOC brought suit against a Raleigh, North Carolina company on the grounds that it failed to accommodate an employee's religious beliefs and subsequently fired him because of his religion.  The company, Triangle Catering, allegedly told an employee, Michael Reddick, Jr., that he had to remove his religious head covering while he worked for the company.  Reddick had been a practicing Rastafarian for over 15 years and wore a small cap to cover his head for religious reasons.  

Reddick told the company that he could not remove the head covering because of religious beliefs and was subsequently terminated as a result. 

The complained of conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

EEOC Press Release:  http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/1-13-15a.cfm


Mims Distributing To Pay $50,000.00 to Settle Religious Discrimination Claim

The EEOC announced that Mims Distributing will pay $50,000.00 to settle a religious discrimination claim brought by a former employee.  At the time he applied for employment, Christopher Alston, was a practicing Rastafarian.  According to the religion, he could not cut his hair.  However, when Alston was told that if he wanted to be hired as a driver, he would have to cut his hair.  Even though Alston explained he could not cut his hair because of his religious beliefs, Mims apparently refused to hire him because he would not comply.

This conduct violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as Mims was required to reasonably accommodate an employee's religious beliefs as long as doing so would not pose an undue hardship, which it failed to do.

EEOC Press Release:  http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/1-20-15.cfm

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