• 29
  • July
    2011

Individuals throughout San Francisco are allowed to exercise their right to freedom of religion. Although it is illegal for employers to discriminate against their employees because of religious practices or beliefs, it still happens.

Recently, a Taco Bell employee was fired because he refused to cut his hair. As a practicing Nazirite, cutting his hair was against his religious beliefs. Taco Bell, on the other hand, said that his long hair did not fit within the company's grooming policy.

They told him he could either cut his hair or be fired. When he refused to cut his hair, he was fired.

Before the man was fired, he had been working at Taco Bell for six years. He was 25 years old at the time, and he hadn't cut his hair since he was 15. It is not clear what finally caused the fast food franchise to act out against the man, but they were out of place to do so.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Taco Bell for failing to accommodate the man's religious beliefs. The law requires employers to make "reasonable accommodations to sincerely held religious beliefs of employees as long as doing so poses no undue hardship."

Since Taco Bell likely employs females who have long hair, the company should already have had policies in place regarding appropriate hair maintenance at work. Whether Taco Bell females are required to wear a hair net or pull their hair back, there was likely already a company policy in place regarding the issue. Accommodating his Nazirite beliefs would not have created an undue hardship.

An attorney with the EEOC stated that the lawsuit "demonstrates the EEOC's commitment to fighting religious discrimination in the workplace."

Source: The BLT, The Blog of Legal Times, "A Hairy EEOC Fight for Taco Bell," Jenna Greene, 28 July 2011