Marriott companies to favorably settle with Christian employee who claimed religious discrimination
Marriott companies have agreed to pay $175,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by the EEOC after the companies revoked a Christian employee’s religious exemption.
Two Marriott companies have agreed to pay out a sum of $175,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) after the companies revoked a Christian employee’s religious exemption from working on the Sabbath.
According to an EEOC press release, Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation and Marriott Ownership Resorts, Inc., initially allowed a Seventh-Day Adventist employee to take off Saturdays — which she observes as the Sabbath — but a change in management led to the withdrawal of her exemption.
The lawsuit alleged that management began scheduling the employee for Saturday shifts even though she repeatedly asked that the exemption be reinstated. EEOC said the situation negatively affected the employee’s sales and commissions and required her to choose between her faith and her job. She later resigned.
The EEOC sued the companies in May and claimed religious discrimination, saying that the companies’ alleged conduct violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — a law that bans discrimination based on religion and requires reasonable religious accommodations in workplaces. Kristen M. Foslid, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Miami District Office, stated in the release that providing the employee with the religious exemption in this case would not have inflicted “undue hardship” on the employers, thereby making their refusal to grant the accommodation a violation of federal law.
The final settlement requires the companies to pay the financial compensation and implement several new strategies and policies to protect religious workers in the future.
The settlement follows promises made by President Donald Trump and his administration to protect Christianity and religious expression in public spaces, including workplaces. According to The National News Desk, Trump vowed during Holy Week to “defend the Christian faith in our schools, military, workplaces, hospitals, and halls of government,” saying that his administration “will never waver in safeguarding the right to religious liberty, upholding the dignity of life, and protecting God in our public square.”
As Zeale previously reported, the Trump administration issued a new guidance for federal workplaces in July, protecting employees’ right to openly express their religious beliefs at work.
