In September 2008, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) and Muslim employees reached a tentative settlement in their religious discrimination lawsuit against Gold’n Plump Poultry, Inc. The lawsuit alleged that the company failed to provide religious accommodation by prohibiting Muslim employees who practice Islam to engage in prayer and other violations of the law. Gold’n Plump denied that it engaged in any unlawful religious discrimination and argued that it reasonably accommodated the religious practices of its employees.

Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, an employer cannot discriminate based upon religion and is required to affirmatively accommodate religious observances and practices unless providing the accommodation would result in undue hardship on the employer. The “undue hardship” test requires only that the employer show that the requested religious accommodation would cause more than a “di minimus” cost to the employer’s business.

In this lawsuit, the Muslim employees claimed Gold’n Plump did not allow them to take breaks to pray according to the Islamic prayer schedule that requires that five prayers be performed each day. The lawsuit also alleged that Gold’n Plump forced Muslim employees to handle pork products, even though the handling of such products was against their religious beliefs. Gold ‘n Plump argued that it had fully complied with the law.

The lawsuit did not go to trial. Instead, prior to trial the parties reached a tentative settlement agreement in September 2008. The parties must finalize the remaining disputed issues and then the settlement must be approved by the Federal Court. The terms of the settlement have not been publicly released. However, according to Gold ‘n Plump, as part of the settlement it agreed to institute two 10-minute breaks, rather than one 15-minute break, for all of its employees. In exchange, the EEOC and the employees will agree to withdraw the lawsuit against Gold’n Plump in Federal Court.

This settlement has no precedential legal value for future lawsuits. However, the settlement highlights the growing religious diversity in today’s workforce, the need to be aware of religious issues in the workplace, and the need for clear policies against religious discrimination. Please contact us if you have questions regarding your company’s compliance with religious discrimination laws or require guidance on religious accommodation at your company.