The Department of Justice announced has filed a lawsuit against the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), saying that WMATA failed to provide reasonable accommodation and failed to provide equal employment opportunities to employees and prospective employees whose religious practices conflict with its uniform policy.
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Download NowFederal prosecutors say that WMATA engaged in a pattern or practice of religious discrimination, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The department alleges that WMATA's practice is to deny all requests for religious accommodations to its uniform policy, regardless of whether reasonable accommodations are available that would resolve the conflict without imposing an undue hardship on WMATA.
The complaint also alleges that WMATA discriminated against an applicant for a bus operator position by failing to accommodate her religious practices and by refusing to hire her when her religious practices prevented her from complying with a portion of WMATA's uniform policy for bus operators.
"Employees should not have to sacrifice their religious practices for their livelihoods," said Grace Chung Becker, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. "While public employers have the authority to require uniforms, they cannot refuse to accommodate an employee's religious practice when reasonable accommodation is possible."