Georgia Grocery Chain to Pay $65,000 After Firing Worker Over Sabbath Request
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced a settlement on September 28 resolving a religious discrimination lawsuit against Reynolds IGA Foodliner, which operates a Piggly Wiggly grocery store in Hazlehurst, Georgia. The agency said a deli clerk who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints asked for Sundays off to observe her Sabbath. Her supervisor refused, saying other employees would then want the same accommodation, and fired her in January 2025 after she continued to ask for the time off.
Under a two year consent decree, the company will pay the former employee $65,000 and must update its religious accommodation procedures, train managers and human resources staff on handling such requests, and post a notice about the settlement at its store. The EEOC sued only after its own attempts to resolve the dispute through conciliation failed. The case is EEOC v. Reynolds IGA Foodliner, Inc., filed in the Southern District of Georgia.
