White Hall Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, an elder care facility in Jefferson County is settling a religious discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The facility has agreed to pay $24,000 to a certified nursing assistant (CNA) it fired in 2007 because of her religious beliefs.

The EEOC's lawsuit charged that White Hall denied a religious accommodation.

The CNA, who had worked at White Hall's long-term care facility for over a year, is a Seventh-Day Adventist, and her Sabbath is from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday evening.  Her religious beliefs prohibit her from working on her Sabbath.  After accommodating the CNA for over a year, the facility suddenly refused to allow the employee to take off on her Sabbath and then terminated her employment.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits religious discrimination and requires employers to make reasonable accommodations to employees' and applicants' sincerely held religious beliefs as long as this does not pose an undue hardship. The EEOC filed suit after first attempting to reach a voluntary settlement.

In addition to the monetary relief, the consent decree settling the suit, approved by U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright, enjoins White Hall from discrimination on the bases of religion and retaliation.  Further, the decree requires the company to provide training to its supervisory and management personnel on religious discrimination, to submit two reports to the EEOC on the training and any future complaints of religious accommodation, and to post a notice reinforcing the company's policies on Title VII.

"An employee should not be forced to choose between her religion and her job," said Faye A. Williams, regional attorney of the EEOC's Memphis District Office, which has jurisdiction over Arkansas, Tennessee, and Northern Mississippi.  "This case demonstrates the EEOC's commitment to combat this type of discrimination."

Over the last ten years, religion-based complaints have almost doubled-from 1,786 charge receipts in 1998 to 3,273 charge receipts in 2008. 

The EEOC (click here for its website) enforces federal laws that prohibit employment discrimination.