EEOC Filed Against Chick-fil-A

By Jackson Olesky, THLA Associate General Counsel

This month in Austin, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a lawsuit against a Chick-fil-A franchisee, alleging religious discrimination by the company against an employee for failing to accommodate the employee’s request not to work Saturdays due to observance of the Sabbath and then terminating the employee. Despite initially accommodating the employee’s request, the company allegedly reversed course and then asked the employee to take a lower-paying role or be fired.

In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court changed the standard for religious discrimination in employment. Until 2023, an employer had to provide reasonable accommodations for an employee with sincerely held religious beliefs. But after Groff v. DeJoy in 2023, the standard changed to offer more protection to employees.

Now, the federal EEOC is actively enforcing that new standard.

Applying the Substantial Burden Test

Although the Supreme Court has announced that an employer must show a substantial burden to its business in order to avoid accommodating a religious belief, it has provided limited guidance about what “substantial burden” means. The Groff decision indicates that an employer must show “that the burden of granting an accommodation would result in substantially increased costs in relation to the conduct of its particular business.”

Additionally, the Court noted that courts may review “all relevant factors in the case at hand, including the particular accommodations at issue and their practical impact in light of the nature, size, and operating cost of an employer.”

The Supreme Court expressly rejected adopting disability discrimination case law and stated that “it would not be prudent to ratify in toto a body of EEOC [U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] interpretation that has not had the benefit of the clarification.” However, in Groff, the Court did note that the EEOC’s guidance regarding religious accommodation, including 29 C.F.R. §1605.2(d), “is sensible and will, in all likelihood, be unaffected” by the decision. Therefore, although the new standard remains unclear, EEOC guidance may be an effective guidepost for navigating accommodation requests.

Prevent Religious Discrimination

While this lawsuit remains ongoing, it serves as an important reminder to hotel owners to ensure they prevent religious discrimination and discrimination in all forms in the workplace. 

As such, hotel owners must take all reasonable steps to accommodate their employees’ religious beliefs.

 If you have questions about this or other employment-related matters, please contact your attorney. Additionally, THLA legal staff is always available to answer any questions you may have.