Worker lost job because he refused to shave, feds say. Now former employer will pay
A Christian worker said shaving his beard violated his religious beliefs — then his company called it a “purely personal preference” and forced him out of the job, federal officials said.
Now, the Virginia-based company will pay nearly $111,000 to settle a discrimination lawsuit.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Dec. 26 that it had reached an agreement with Triple Canopy, which provides security services to the Department of Homeland Security.
“Triple Canopy is an industry leader that strives to provide all available reasonable accommodations to employees within the confines of its contractual obligations to its federal government customers,” Bernard G. Dennis III, the company’s lawyer, told McClatchy News in a statement. “The Company denies any wrongdoing and ultimately decided to settle the case due of the costs associated with defending the matter.”
Marcus Williams was a security officer at the company from July 2019 to August 2021. The Christian man “holds the sincerely-held religious belief that a man should not shave his beard except for medical reasons or when in mourning,” according to a complaint filed by the EEOC.
Triple Canopy requires employees’ faces to be “clean-shaven, except for mustaches and sideburns” as part of a contract with the Department of Homeland Security, officials said.
If an employer wants an exemption to the “grooming standard,” however, the company can seek one from the department.
When Williams requested a religious exemption to grow a full beard, the company asked him to show a statement from a religious leader that he needed to do so, the EEOC said in its complaint.
Williams told the company he was nondenominational and didn’t have a religious leader he could ask because he didn’t belong to a particular church, officials said. He submitted a description of his beliefs, in which he said Biblical texts supported the idea that beards are “paramount.”
After more back and forth, Triple Canopy said Williams would be “disciplined if he arrived at work in violation of the grooming standard. Williams stated he was unwilling to shave his beard,” according to the complaint.
When he didn’t show up for his next shift, the company took him off the schedule and put him in a “leave of absence status,” the EEOC said.
Williams continued to petition for his accommodation, asking what additional proof he could provide to resolve the issue.
“My religious standing as you can imagine is extremely important to me, and not a matter I take lightly,” he said, according to the complaint.
Eventually, his company stopped responding to him, and he was constructively discharged, federal officials said. A constructive discharge means his resignation was not entirely voluntary because of hostility or pressure from his employer to quit.
In its response to the EEOC’s complaint, Triple Canopy denied many aspects of the narrative described by the agency but said it never submitted a request for an exemption to the grooming standard to the department.
The company maintained it “acted in good faith” and didn’t violate Williams’ rights. It called Williams’ ideology a “purely personal preference, not a sincerely held religious belief.”
The EEOC said this violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and sued the company.
After the EEOC requested a jury trial, Triple Canopy agreed to settle the lawsuit. It will pay Williams $110,759 and commit to providing a new religious accommodation policy and training employees on discrimination and retaliation.
“Religion under Title VII is broadly defined; it applies not only to mainstream religious beliefs that are part of a formal religious group, but also to all aspects of an individual’s religious observance, practice and belief,” Mindy Weinstein, director of the EEOC’s Washington Field Office, said in the news release.
This story was originally published December 29, 2023 at 7:21 AM with the headline "Worker lost job because he refused to shave, feds say. Now former employer will pay."