Texas Tribune / Martin do Nascimento
The Division of Justice sued the Texas Division of Prison Justice on Friday accusing the jail system of discriminating in opposition to its worker primarily based on their faith.
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The U.S. Division of Justice filed a lawsuit Friday accusing the Texas Division of Prison Justice of discriminating in opposition to one in every of its former workers primarily based on her non secular beliefs.
The federal lawsuit, filed within the Southern District of Texas, alleges that the state company denied Franches Spears non secular lodging by refusing to permit the non-uniformed worker to put on a head overlaying, based on court docket paperwork.
“Employers can not require workers to forfeit their non secular beliefs or improperly query the sincerity of these beliefs,” Assistant Lawyer Basic Kristen Clarke of the Justice Division’s Civil Rights Division, stated in a press release asserting the lawsuit. “This lawsuit is a reminder to all employers of their clear authorized obligation to supply cheap non secular lodging. In our nation, employers can not pressure an worker to decide on between their religion and their job.”
The lawsuit alleges the Texas jail company’s refusal to accommodate Spears’ non secular observe violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“TDCJ doesn’t touch upon pending litigation, however the company respects the non secular rights of all workers and inmates,” Hannah Haney, the company’s deputy director of communications, advised The Texas Tribune in a press release.
In July 2019, Spears was employed to work as a clerk on the Pam Lychner State Jail, a TDCJ facility in Humble, northeast of Houston.
Consistent with her Ifa beliefs, Spears started sporting a scarf to work in September 2019. Ifa, a West African faith, dictates that a few of its practitioners cowl their “head with a head dressing during times of non secular ceremony, mourning, or to guard her non secular energy,” the criticism learn.
Shortly after Spears started sporting the overlaying, she met with Human Sources Specialist Elizabeth Fisk to elucidate the non secular significance behind the top dressing. In line with the criticism, Fisk responded to Spears’ by saying, “Mainly you simply pray to a rock.”
Fisk advised Spears that she might both take away her headband and proceed working or go residence till the company selected her non secular lodging request. TDCJ positioned Spears on unpaid depart, based on court docket filings.
“TDCJ additional questioned the sincerity of Spears’s religion when Bailey mailed a letter demanding documentation or a press release from a spiritual establishment pointing to the particular Ifa perception or doctrine that supported the need of Spears’s head overlaying,” the criticism learn, referring to testimony from TDCJ’s Non secular Lodging Coordinator Terry Bailey.
Whereas TDCJ was contemplating Spears’ request for non secular lodging she acquired a “wage warrant letter” from the company in November 2019. She understood the letter as a termination discover demanding the return of TDCJ property, like identification playing cards and keys, so as to obtain her closing paycheck.
In February 2020, Spears filed a criticism in opposition to TDCJ with the U.S. Equal Employment Alternative Fee. The federal company discovered cheap trigger that TDCJ discriminated in opposition to Spears and tried to resolve the difficulty via mediation. When that failed, the EEOC referred the case to the DOJ.
The criticism asks TDCJ to compensate Spears for misplaced wages and different damages associated to the incident. Moreover, the Justice Division desires the Texas company to institute non secular lodging insurance policies.
This text initially appeared within the Texas Tribune.
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