EEOC Says Cashier Denied Reasonable Religious Accomodations

When Aldi’s Unitown store began to offer Sunday hours in December 2005, Kimberly Bloom, a cashier at the store since 1998, asked that she not have to work on that day because she observed the Sabbath as a Protestant, according to the Associated Press. The store said she could not take off the entire day – only enough time to attend church. The EEOC said in its suit that this accomodation was not reasonable.

Bloom was then fired in February when she began not showing up for work on Sundays.

The EEOC’s religious discrimination suit asks a federal court in Pittsburgh to stop Aldi from refusing the religious requests of its employees, the AP reports. For Bloom, the agency is asking she be awarded back pay and front pay or reinstatement, and is also asking for damages.