RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION LAWSUIT AGAINST BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA POLICE DEPARTMENT SETTLED

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Justice Department Settles Lawsuit Alleging Religious Discrimination by the City of Birmingham, Ala., Police Department

The Department of Justice announced today that it has reached a settlement agreement with the City of Birmingham, Ala., that, if approved by the court, will resolve the Department’s complaint alleging religious discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended.  The complaint, which was filed simultaneously with the parties’ settlement agreement in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, alleges that the city’s police department discriminated against former employee Renee Gunn on the basis of her religion, Messianic Judaism, by failing to provide her a reasonable accommodation of her religious practice of not working during the Jewish Sabbath, which ultimately forced her to resign from the police department.  

Gunn was employed by the city’s police department as a public safety dispatcher from April 2008 until her resignation in August 2011.  According to the Department’s complaint, Gunn is a practicing member of the Messianic Jewish faith, which prohibits its adherents from working during the Jewish Sabbath, from sunset on Fridays until sunset on Saturdays.  As the Department’s complaint alleges, Ms. Gunn’s work schedule required that she work during the Jewish Sabbath, and she requested a change in her schedule to accommodate her Sabbath observance.  According to the complaint, police department officials denied this request stating that it did not change off days for any religious faith.   Ms. Gunn was forced to resign her position with the police department due to the city’s failure to provide a reasonable accommodation.  As the complaint alleges, the police department could have accommodated Ms. Gunn’s religious beliefs without undue hardship.

Under the terms of the settlement, the city must pay Gunn $80,000 in back pay and compensatory damages, and reinstate her as a dispatcher in the police department with a work schedule that does not require her to work during the Sabbath.   The city is also required to develop and implement a religious accommodation policy for the police department that is consistent with Title VII’s requirement for employers to reasonably accommodate the religious beliefs, practices and observances of all employees and prospective employees.  In addition, the city is required to provide mandatory training on the religious accommodation policy to all police department employees.

“Employees should not have to choose between practicing their religion and their jobs,” said Jocelyn Samuels, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.  “This case highlights the obligation of an employer to engage in an interactive process to understand and work with an employee in finding an accommodation of the employee’s religious beliefs that will not cause undue hardship to the employer.  We commend the City of Birmingham for working cooperatively with the Justice Department to reach this agreement.”

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE SETTLES RELIGIOUS HEAD GARMENT LAWSUIT WITH NYCTA

 FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Justice Department Settles Religious Discrimination Lawsuit Against New York City Transit Authority
The Justice Department announced today that it has reached a settlement with the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) to resolve allegations that the NYCTA is engaged in a pattern or practice of religious discrimination.

The Justice Department filed its complaint in September 2004 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.   The complaint alleged that the NYCTA violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by selectively enforcing its uniform headwear policies against employees who are unable to comply for religious reasons and by failing or refusing to reasonably accommodate those employees whose religious practices require an accommodation from the NYCTA’s uniform headwear policies.   Title VII prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin and religion.

According to the Justice Department’s complaint, the NYCTA had not enforced its uniform headwear policies prior to Sept. 11, 2001.   However, beginning in or about March 2002, the NYCTA began to selectively enforce those policies against Muslim and Sikh employees, moving them or threatening to move them out of public contact positions because the employees, consistent with their sincerely held religious beliefs, refused to attach NYCTA logos to their khimars and turbans, respectively.

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, which must still be approved by the court, the NYCTA must:   (1) adopt new uniform headwear policies, which would allow employees working in public contact positions to wear khimars, yarmulkes, turbans, kufis, skullcaps, tams and headscarves without attaching anything to the headwear; (2) implement and distribute a new religious accommodation policy consistent with Title VII’s requirement to reasonably accommodate the religious practices of all employees and prospective workers; and   (3) provide guidance to and ensure that training is completed by the NYCTA personnel responsible for implementing the agency’s new religious accommodation policy and procedure.  Additionally, the NYCTA will pay $184,500, divided among eight current and former NYCTA employees who were denied religious accommodations related to the NYCTA’s prior uniform headwear policies.

“This settlement agreement sends a clear message that the Department of Justice will not tolerate religious discrimination,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.   “I am pleased that the NYCTA has agreed to end its discriminatory practices that for years have forced employees to choose between practicing their religion and maintaining their jobs.”