The Christian-owned fast-food restaurant chain is closed on Sundays in observance of the Sabbath, a weekly day of rest and worship observed in Judaism and Christianity.
Laurel Torode, a member of the United Church of God, observes the Sabbath on Saturdays. She claims she made that known upon interviewing for a job at a Chick-fil-A in the Austin, Texas area.
She was hired and worked as a manager that oversaw delivery drivers for several months but was later told that she had to work Saturdays. When seeking accommodation to keep her management position, she was allegedly told she would have to accept a delivery driver position with reduced pay, hours and benefits to avoid working on Saturday.
Torode declined to take the lower position and was ultimately fired.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is now going after the franchise operator, saying he violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Attorney Stephanie Taub of First Liberty Institute, a religious liberty law firm based in Texas, thinks Torode has "a strong case."
"These cases are very fact-specific when you're looking at whether an employee is entitled to a reasonable accommodation," she tells AFN. "It does look like she's got a strong case because she was afforded a religious accommodation to observe the Sabbath on Saturday, and then they took that accommodation away."
The fact that Chick-fil-A was able to provide the accommodation for some amount of time lends credence to the idea that they were able to accommodate her without incurring significant increased costs to the business.
Liberty Counsel made similar comments to AFN last week.
The franchise owner does still have the opportunity to prove it would be difficult for him to accommodate the former employee in this manner.
Taub, whose firm is not involved in this case, says both sides will engage in the discovery process to figure out what happened and whether the employee was wrongfully denied a religious accommodation that the company could have provided.
After it goes through the court system, Taub says a jury will make these decisions.
The EEOC did not respond to AFN's requests for comment on Torode's case.
