A debt collector has agreed to pay $65,000 to settle a religious discrimination lawsuit filed against it by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after it fired a Christian employee for refusing to submit to fingerprinting as part of a background check. The employee argued that having his fingerprints captured was contrary to his religious beliefs.
A copy of the consent decree in the case of EEOC v. AscensionPoint Recovery Services can be accessed by clicking here.
The fingerprinting was required as part of a background check procedure prompted by one of the collector’s clients. The employee refused on religious grounds and rather than ask the client if exemptions were available on religious grounds or seek other alternatives, the collector fired the employee.
The Civl Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on religion and requires employers to “reasonably accommodate” an applicant’s or employee’s religious practice unless it would cause an undue hardship.
The $65,000 includes $28,000 in back pay and $37,000 in compensatory damages. Along with paying the employee, the collector will be required to train all employees on an annual basis about the Civil Rights Act, with an emphasis on religious discrimination. The EEOC will have to sign off on the training and the individuals who will provide it. The collector must also develop an accommodations policy that details how it will “fully investigate the feasibility” of requested religious accommodations and that it will make good faith efforts to obtain cooperation from third parties — clients — in meeting the needs for accommodations.
“The law requires employers to consider accommodations to the religious beliefs and practices of their employees, and to provide an accommodation unless it presents an undue hardship,” said Gregory Gochanour, the EEOC’s regional attorney in the Chicago District Office, in a statement
