To: Chief Executive Officer
From:
Date:
Subject: Response to constructive discharge law suit.
Constructive Discharge
Constructive discharge occurs when an employer makes working conditions unbearable that an employee feels forced to resign from his job. Unbearable conditions can include discrimination, harassment or negative change in pay.
In our company’s case the former employee alleges that enforcement of company’s new shift policy is discriminatory because the policy requires employees to work on a religious holy day.
The former employee can establish that constructive discharge occurred only if he can show that our company purposefully created an intolerable or discriminating working environment to quit.
The company did not create the new shift policy to discriminate against one or more group of employees with religious belief. The policy clearly stated that due to company’s growth the production demand has to get increased to 12 hour shifts with any 4 days at work from Monday through Sunday.
Title VII
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 law makes it illegal to discriminate against someone on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex. The law also makes it illegal to retaliate against a person because the person participated in an employment discrimination investigation, filed a charge of discrimination or complained about discrimination.
The former employee is filing law suit under this law that also requires that employers reasonably accommodate employees’ sincerely help religious practices, unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on the operation of the employer’s business.
If the company has to accommodate the employees’ religious practices along with 12 hour shifts then the work load of other employees who does not practice the religious practices has to bear the work of employees who are not willing to work on religious holy days. This would again become a discrimination against the employees