Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit against a motor carrier, claiming it unlawfully discriminated against two Muslim drivers who refused to move alcohol because it absolutely was contrary to their religious beliefs.

 

In 2010, another carrier settled an identical lawsuit filed by a Muslim truck driver who alleged that it absolutely was contrary to Islam for him to consume, possess, or transport alcohol or tobacco. the driving force said he told the carrier about his beliefs when he was hired. Even when truck operators now use trucking TMS software to make the drivers’ life as truckers easier in consideration of their wellbeing, their faith is usually the one thing that is the most neglected.

Firing drivers for these reasons may be a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the EEOC said.

The provision of the Civil Rights Act, they noted, makes it unlawful for an employer to “discharge somebody… thanks to such individual’s… religion.”

For example, an employee who is terminated for refusing to figure on Sundays can make a non-secular accommodation claim whether or not other nonreligious employees were also fired for refusing Sunday work. this can be the case while the employer’s reason for the discharge is legitimate and nondiscriminatory (because the Sunday work rule applies to any or all employees, no matter religion).

Smith Moore Leatherwood says case law suggests that an employer is obligated a minimum to contemplate and suggest accommodations that don’t significantly disrupt its workplace or violate its rules or policies.

 

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For instance, in a very case involving the previous Trans World Airlines, the Supreme Court ruled that the employer couldn’t reasonably accommodate the employee’s refusal to figure on his Sabbath without undue hardship.

TWA had made several efforts to accommodate the worker. Because federal law requires that sincerely held religious beliefs be accommodated, an employer should consider and document what solutions are available and have interaction in an interactive process with the worker to do to work out an answer.

The burden could be minimal: In an alcohol case, the EEOC wrote that it found that the carrier could have avoided assigning the Muslim employees to alcohol delivery with no undue hardship.

And if the supernatural virtue is sincerely held, courts may conclude that refusing to create the accommodation violates federal law.