A motor carrier accused of religious discrimination against a Christian truck driver is asking the court to dismiss the complaint.
In March, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit against California-based Blue Eagle Contracting, alleging that the company refused to provide accommodations that would have allowed Christian truck driver Paul Gerstman to attend Sunday services. The lawsuit added that the motor carrier’s continued decision to schedule the truck driver on Sundays led to his constructive discharge, which is when a worker’s resignation is caused by the employer’s hostile or intolerable work environment.
On June 2, Blue Eagle Contracting pushed back against claims of constructive discharge and the EEOC’s pursuit of punitive damages.
“The complaint does not allege that Gerstman was disciplined, reprimanded, written up, demoted, docked pay, threatened with termination, subjected to religious epithets or hostile comments, or told he must quit,” attorneys for Blue Eagle Contracting wrote in the motion to the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada. “It does not identify a single non-Christian employee (or any employee at all) who was treated more favorably.”
According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, Blue Eagle hired Gerstman on Sept. 24, 2022, to drive a bulk mail delivery route between Reno and Tonopah, Nev., four days each week, during the day on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and during the evening on Fridays.
From Sept. 24, 2022, to Nov. 19, 2022, Gerstman’s schedule did not conflict with his desire to attend Sunday morning church services. However, another truck driver resigned in November. According to court documents, Gerstman informed Blue Eagle that he would work the weekend day shift, but only until the company could hire a replacement driver because he needed to attend church on Sundays.
For at least four weeks, the company required Gerstman to work on Sundays despite his complaints. On Dec. 17, 2022, Gerstman’s supervisor allegedly denied his accommodation via text. Gerstman resigned shortly after Dec. 17, 2022.
The lawsuit alleges that Blue Eagle’s failure to accommodate the truck driver’s sincerely held religious beliefs ultimately compelled him to leave his job and that the company violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The company said its motion does not challenge the sufficiency of the EEOC’s failure-to-accommodate claims. Instead, the motion is directed only to layering constructive discharge and punitive damages on top of the core claim.
“Blue Eagle respectfully requests that the court dismiss the EEOC’s constructive-discharge theory, the EEOC’s claim for punitive damages and any stand-alone intentional-discrimination theory distinct from failure to accommodate,” the defendants wrote. “As to the constructive-discharge theory, the complaint’s own timeline – four Sunday shifts culminating in a same-day resignation upon receipt of a single supervisor text message – shows that the claim is not plausibly pleaded.” LL
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