An employee for a delivery service in Florida who was fired after he refused to work a Sunday shift has won an anti-discrimination case against his former employer.
According to The Christian Post, the Tampa Bay Delivery Service, an Amazon delivery service provider based in the Tampa Bay area, will have to pay $50,000 in relief and make changes to its workplace environment to settle the lawsuit.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission brought the complaint on behalf of the delivery worker, who has not been publicly named. He was fired after he attended Sunday worship service instead of working his scheduled shift.
Previously, the worker had told his employer that he could not work on Sundays.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids employers to discriminate on the basis of religion and requires employers to “reasonably accommodate an applicant’s or employee’s sincerely held religious beliefs unless it would pose an undue hardship.”
The delivery company will now be required to provide anti-discrimination training and appoint a “religious accommodation coordinator.”
“We commend Tampa Bay Delivery Service for working collaboratively with EEOC to resolve this lawsuit,” said Robert E. Weisberg, the regional attorney for the EEOC Miami District.
“The employee’s willingness to address EEOC’s concerns will help in preventing future employees from being forced to choose between employment and a religious belief.”
The EEOC filed the complaint last September in the U.S. District Court for the Florida Middle District.
The case follows a 2019 decision in which a 60-year-old Haitian immigrant was awarded $21 million in punitive damages after she was fired from her dishwashing job in Miami. She was fired for refusing to work on Sunday even though she had coordinated with other coworkers to cover her shifts.
“I love God,” the woman told reporters in 2019. “No, I can’t (work on) Sunday because Sunday, I honor God.”
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Alistair Berg
Amanda Casanova is a writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has covered news for ChristianHeadlines.com since 2014. She has also contributed to The Houston Chronicle, U.S. News and World Report and IBelieve.com. She blogs at The Migraine Runner.
