Compliance Stuff

Federal lawsuit says Chick-fil-A franchisee denied employee’s request to observe Sabbath on Saturdays, then fired her AUSTIN, Texas — Hatch Trick, Inc., a Chick-fil-A franchisee operating multiple locations in Austin, violated federal law by refusing to reasonably accommodate an employee’s request to refrain from working on Saturdays in observance of her Sabbath day and instead fired her, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit announced today. According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, the employee, who managed Hatch Trick’s delivery drivers at one of its Austin locations, is a member of the United Church of God denomination, which observes a Saturday Sabbath. In adherence to her religious faith and practice, she requested no scheduled hours on Saturdays, and she disclosed the need during her job interview . Although Hatch Trick initially honored the employee’s request to refrain from Saturday work, after several months the company changed its position and ...

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) is poised to elevate its focus on religious discrimination in the workplace and employers should be alert. With its newly restored quorum allowing Acting Chair Andrea Lucas to move forward with more aggressive enforcement, the agency is expected to pursue a broader litigation agenda emphasizing religious accommodation rights under Title VII. In 2025 alone, the EEOC filed 11 religious discrimination suits, the highest in nearly a decade . Lucas credited the agency’s “tremendous wins” in defending religious liberty and signaled that this momentum will continue. What This Means for Employers The EEOC’s direction marks a clear shift towards faith-based accommodation enforcement following the Supreme Court’s decision in  Groff v. DeJoy,  600 U.S. 447 (2023). Under  Groff,  employers must grant religious accommodations unless doing so would cause substantial increased costs or undue hardship. This standard sets a much...