Greyhound accused of discriminating against Muslim bus driver. Now it has to pay up
Greyhound has to pay a Muslim woman $45,000 after she applied to work as a bus driver but was forced to leave training when management told her she couldn’t wear an abaya on the job, federal officials said.
The settlement comes more than two years after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a complaint in Maryland federal court accusing Greyhound Lines Inc. — the largest intercity bus carrier in the U.S. — of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination based on religion.
The EEOC is a federal agency tasked with safeguarding and enforcing anti-discrimination laws in the workplace.
“Our right to exercise our religious beliefs is one of our most precious freedoms,” said Jamie R. Williamson, director of the EEOC’s Philadelphia office. “This settlement should send a strong message to all employers about the need to provide a religious accommodation.”
A representative for Greyhound declined to comment, and attorneys representing the company did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Monday, Nov. 29.
The EEOC filed its complaint in June 2019 on behalf of Aliya Hadith, a practicing Sunni Muslim who dresses modestly in accordance with her faith. For Hadith, that includes wearing a hijab, or headscarf, and an abaya. According to the EEOC, an abaya is a “loose-fitting ankle-length overgarment that conceals the outline of the wearer’s body.”
Hadith applied to work for Greyhound in Baltimore, Maryland, in November 2017 and asked about her clothing during the interview, the lawsuit states.
The supervisor said it wouldn’t be a problem and offered her a job, the EEOC said.
According to court documents, Hadith was sent to a two-week training course in New Jersey in December 2017. Before she left, Hadith reportedly asked her supervisor again about the dress requirements. He told her to sign a religious waiver when she got there and said it would be fine, the agency said.
But after Hadith arrived for the training course, court documents state, the instructor emailed two higher-ups at the company saying she was “dressed as a Muslim” with “no white shirt or black tie” as required by Greyhound’s uniform policy.
“She must wear the uniform,” one of the officials said in response, according to court filings. “We can do an accommodation for head covering, pants must be under the skirt with the skirt over the pants hitting below the knee. White shirt/tie is to be worn.”
Hadith’s supervisor from Baltimore met with her the following day and told her Greyhound would let her wear the hijab — but not the abaya.
Instead, Hadith was reportedly offered an alternative uniform that included Greyhound’s customary white shirt with a knee-length skirt and the option of wearing pants underneath. According to the lawsuit, the supervisor told her Greyhound was concerned about Hadith tripping on the abaya while performing her duties on the buses.
In court documents, the judge overseeing the case said Hadith called her husband to discuss the proposed uniform. He reportedly left it up to her to decide.
Hadith — who had a commercial driver’s license and had driven a semitruck for a year wearing an abaya with no issue before she applied to Greyhound’s training program — ultimately declined their proposed accommodation and walked away from the job, court filings state.
She filed a claim of discrimination with the EEOC shortly thereafter, and the commission determined there was reasonable cause to believe Greyhound’s actions violated federal law.
The EEOC attempted to mediate the dispute with Greyhound. When that process failed, the commission filed suit.
After a year and a half of litigation, Greyhound asked the judge rule in its favor, saying it offered a reasonable accommodation to Hadith’s request for a religious exemption that she chose not to accept.
Greyhound’s argument, the judge said, was that the alternative uniform should count as a sufficient accommodation because another female Muslim driver had previously accepted it as such.
“Greyhound would like to think that the other Muslim driver and Hadith are interchangeable for purposes of Title VII,” the judge said in issuing her ruling. “But, two members of the same religion may have varying religious practices and forms of religious observation, especially with respect to details such as the length of a skirt or overgarment.”
The judge rejected Greyhound’s bid to toss the suit, and the company agreed to settle shortly thereafter.
Under the terms of the agreement, Greyhound will pay Hadith $4,059 in back pay and $40,941 in compensatory damages. The company will also retrain its human resources managers and hiring officials regarding religious accommodations, report back to the EEOC on how it handles those requests in the future and a post a notice of the settlement.
In a news release, EEOC Regional Attorney Debra M. Lawrence said the agency was “gratified that Greyhound worked with us to reach an amicable settlement which compensates the applicant and ensures that no employees or applicants are discriminated against based on religion.”
This story was originally published November 30, 2021 at 8:57 AM with the headline "Greyhound accused of discriminating against Muslim bus driver. Now it has to pay up."
