The retail tire and automotive service chain Mavis Tire Supply agreed to pay $303,758 in back pay, front pay and compensatory damage to a Shabbat-observant employee, whom it passed over for a management role, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said on Monday.
The federal agency said that it found “reasonable cause to believe” that the White Plains, N.Y.-based company “failed to hire an applicant for a managerial position in the central New York region because, during his interview, he requested Friday evenings and Saturdays off to observe the Sabbath.”
The agency’s probe also found that Mavis “then offered him a job as a tire technician, a lower position with a more flexible schedule, but retracted it after the applicant reiterated his request for a religious accommodation,” it said.
That decision violates Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the agency said. The tire company agreed to settle before litigation and agreed both to pay the $303,758 and to train its staff better and to revise its policies about religious accomodations.
“Management at Mavis also agreed to post a notice highlighting the resolution of this matter and the laws enforced by the EEOC and report on any internal complaints of religious discrimination or retaliation to the EEOC,” the federal agency said.
Arlean Nieto, acting director of the agency’s New York district office, stated that “employers cannot refuse to hire a job applicant to avoid granting a request for a religious accommodation.”
“Employers need to take reasonable efforts to accommodate an employee’s sincerely held religious belief, unless such an accommodation would pose an undue hardship,” Nieto said.
