WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a workplace discrimination lawsuit against supermarket chain Food Lion, saying it refused to provide time off for a worker who is a Jehovah's Witness and then fired him.
The complaint was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court.
According to the complaint, Victaurius L. Bailey was hired as a meat cutter at a Food Lion in Winston-Salem on June 6, 2011. Bailey is a minister and an elder, and is required to attend church services and church-related meetings. As a result, Bailey asked not to be scheduled for Sundays or Thursdays.
Bailey's manager accommodated him, but he was transferred to a Food Lion store in Kernersville, where the manager said he didn't see how Bailey could work for Food Lion if he couldn't work on Sundays.
The complaint said Bailey was then fired, three weeks after he was hired.
In its complaint, the EEOC seeks back pay, compensatory damages, punitive damages and injunctive relief.
Food Lion spokeswoman Christy Phillips-Brown said the Salisbury, North Carolina-based chain hasn't seen the complaint and couldn't comment.
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