Procedures or Discrimination?

Another company bites the bullet for lacking an accommodation mindset and not providing religious reasonable accommodations.

Can you terminate an employee who refuses to be fingerprinted due to his/her religion?

Simple answer: "No you can't!

Ascension Point Recovery Services, LLC (APRS) allegedly, violated federal law when it fired a Christian employee instead of accommodating his request not to be fingerprinted due to his religion

"The EEOC's pre-suit investigation revealed that APRS had requested that its employees be fingerprinted as a result of a background check requirement of one of its clients. Shortly after the Christian employee informed APRS that having his fingerprints captured was contrary to his religions practices, APRS fired him at their St. Louis Park, Minn., office. APRS did so without asking the client whether an exemption was available as a religious accommodation, and despite the fact that alternatives to fingerprinting are available"

We have seen these cases below, first back in 2015 when a Virginia federal jury awarded $150,000 to a miner who refused on religious grounds to use his employer's biometric hand scanner that was installed to track attendance. The employee, an Evangelical Christian, associated the scanning with the "Mark of the Beast" as described in the Christian Bible's Book of Revelation.

A similar case happened in 2015 as well, when a student transportation company terminated a longtime former bus driver because she would not summit to a fingerprint background check. The bus driver informed her employer that according to her religions beliefs, the Book of Revelation prohibits the "Mark of the Devil". The bus driver claimed religious discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and retaliation in violation of Title VII.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on religion and requires employers to reasonable accommodate an applicant's or employee's religious practice unless doing so would pose an undue hardship.

The law protects not only people who belong to traditional, organized religions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, but also others who have sincerely held religious, ethical or moral beliefs.

The law forbids discrimination when it comes to any aspect of employment, including hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, fringe benefits, and any other term or condition or employment.

What did all these employer do wrong? Failing to even explore and provide alternatives to fingerprint which are available.

Case:

https://www.eeoc.gov/newsroom/eeoc-sues-ascensionpoint-recovery-services-religious-discrimination