From the EEOC:
Hank's Furniture, Inc. (HFI), a nationwide furniture retailer, will pay $110,000 and furnish other relief to settle a religious discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.
According to the lawsuit, a former assistant manager at HFI's Pensacola, Florida, location notified the company that her religious beliefs prevented her from receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. Rather than discuss the employee's religious beliefs to determine the feasibility of an accommodation, management ignored accommodation requests then summarily denied the employee's requests and attempted to dispute the validity of her sincerely-held religious beliefs.
Such alleged conduct violated Title VII's prohibition on religious discrimination, which requires an employer to accommodate an employee's sincerely held religious beliefs if the employer knows or suspects the beliefs conflict with an employer requirement, and there is no undue burden on the employer. The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. Hank's Furniture, Inc., Case No. 3:23-cv-24533-MCR-HTC) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process.
