Religion Harassment Claim

In a press release at http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/3-17-10.cfm , the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that Administaff, Inc., a nationwide company which provides full service human resources to small and medium-size businesses, will pay $115,000 and furnish substantial remedial relief to settle a religion harassment lawsuit filed by EEOC attorneys in Maryland.  According to the March 17, 2010 press release, EEOC attorneys charged that the Kingwood, Texas company and Conn-X, LLC violated federal law by engaging in religious discrimination against employees at Conn-X’s Engelwood, Maryland office.  As stated in the press release, EEOC attorneys claimed in the harassment case that two brothers were called “dirty Jew,” “dumb Jew,” and other anti-Semitic slurs by managers and coworkers because of their religion, Judaism.  The harassment allegedly included the defacing of one brother’s vehicle with a swastika symbol.   In addition, the EEOC said the same brother was forced into a trash bin for the amusement of managers who observed them on a work surveillance camera and called it “throw the Jew in the dumpster.”  The EEOC’s lawsuit against Conn-X, LLC, a Florida-based cable service provider, remains unresolved, the EEOC said. 

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits religious harassment.  EEOC attorneys filed the harassment lawsuit after first attempting to reach a voluntary settlement.  In this regard, the EEOC is a federal agency which enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination, including workplace religious harassment.  Religious discrimination charge filings nationwide with the EEOC have increased substantially over the years.  In Fiscal Year 2009, the EEOC received a record high level of 3,386 religious discrimination charges - nearly double the number of religious discrimination charges since Fiscal Year 1992.

Whether anti-Semitic Judaism religious harassment occurs at workplaces in Conroe, Kingwood, Houston or elsewhere, victims of employment related religious bias may contact the EEOC and an attorney to determine if an employment discrimination lawsuit is ultimately appropriate under the particular circumstances and facts of the potential religious discrimination claim.