By Mark Anderson and Katrina Thornton
In Bonilla v. City of Philadelphia, a Philadelphia court denied the City of Philadelphia’s request to throw out a Christian tow truck driver’s lawsuit claiming that he had been discriminated against because of his faith. The court held the Department may have created an offensive work environment based on the driver’s religious beliefs.
Plaintiff Bonilla considers himself a, “devout Christian.” His job was to drive a tow truck for the Philadelphia Police Department. Bonilla requested not to work overtime so he could attend church on Sundays. Bonilla’s supervisors pressured him to work instead of going to church on Sundays. Bonilla’s supervisors made jokes at Bonilla’s expense and regularly called him, “the guy who works for God.” Additionally, Bonilla was given undesirable and more difficult work assignments even though he experienced lower back pain due to a back injury. Bonilla notified a manager about this behavior and made multiple requests for the conduct to stop, but his requests were ignored.
The City of Philadelphia, Bonilla’s employer, asked the court to throw the case out, it argued that it had never disciplined Bonilla for failing to comply with any policies that conflicted with his religious beliefs.
Bonilla argued the Department violated his First Amendment right to free exercise of religion. He noted that the Department employee responsible for supervising and training other Department employees was aware of the harassment he had been subjected to but took no action.
The court held Bonilla provided enough facts to not have his case thrown out. The judge found the Department may have interfered with Bonilla’s free exercise of religion.
The lesson of this case is that the law requires employers to reasonably accommodate their employees’ religious beliefs. It is not enough for the employer to argue that it never disciplined the employee for failing to comply with policies that may have conflicted with the employee’s faith. The issue about how to accommodate time off for religious services when it conflicts with the employer’s scheduling demands is a complicated one, but here, the duty to accommodate was clearly violated when this employee was harassed for engaging in religious practices.
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