Ashley Furniture Grants Client Religious Accommodation To Go to Church Following ACLJ Demand Letter

On September 19, we informed you of the legal action we took on behalf of an employee forced to choose between a work requirement and the employee’s religious practice of attending church. Our demand letter informed DSG Ashley HomeStore (Ashley) of its obligation to reasonably accommodate its employees’ religious practices.

Following receipt of our letter, Ashley granted our client an accommodation that no longer requires her to attend their mandatory meetings at 11 a.m. on Sundays and allows her to attend church before reporting to work.

As we stated before:

Our client works at an Ashley Furniture store in Fort Worth, TX. In the four or more years she has worked for Ashley Furniture, she has been able to attend church and still report to work on time before the store opens for business at 12:00 p.m. on Sundays. Recently, however, the store in Fort Worth implemented a new policy requiring employees, including our client, to report to work one hour earlier to attend mandatory meetings beginning at 11:00 a.m. Upon being notified of this new policy, our client informed the employer that this scheduling change would prevent her from attending her church service and requested an accommodation. The employer – while acknowledging that attending church was important to our client – nonetheless informed her that no exceptions would be made and that she would be required to adhere to this new policy and report to work an hour earlier. Since the new policy has gone into effect, our client has also been written up at least twice for arriving late because of church.

Title VII protects the religious liberties of public and private sector employees. Employers are required to reasonably accommodate an employee’s religious beliefs or practices unless there is an undue hardship.

As we previously explained:

As the Supreme Court recently made clear in Groff v. DeJoy, an employer cannot deny an employee’s religious accommodation simply because it would result in “de minimis cost” to the employer. Instead, the request must substantially interfere with the operations of the employer. Notably, as federal courts have acknowledged, even when an employer applies a policy to all employees, that does not lessen the discriminatory effect on a specific employee’s religious beliefs.

Ashley responded to our demand letter, informing us that our client’s request for a religious accommodation will be granted. Thus, our client will now be permitted to attend her church services and report to work prior to the store opening at 12:00 p.m.

We are thankful the employer realized its obligations under federal law and quickly granted our client a reasonable accommodation.

If you have a religious accommodation request that has been denied by your employer, you may have recourse under Title VII. Please contact us at ACLJ.org/Help.