A Texas-based medical practice that federal officials say subjected employees to religious discrimination and retaliation will pay $375,000 to settle the case following a judgement by a federal court.
Tim Shepherd M.D., P.A. and Bridges Healthcare, P.A., doing business as Shepherd Healthcare, a medical practice in Flower Mound, Texas, will furnish other relief as well, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity.
According to the EEOC’s suit (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Tim Shepherd M.D., P.A. and Bridges Healthcare, P.A., Civil Action No.4:20-cv-60-SDJ), Shepherd Healthcare conducted mandatory meetings each morning that involved prayer and a reading of Biblical verses, including discussion of how those principles applied to the employees’ personal lives.
An employee in the call center, who followed the principles of Buddhism, asked several times to be excused from attending the religious portion of the mandatory daily staff meeting as a religious accommodation. Her requests for accommodation were denied, and she was fired just one day after she had renewed her request to be excused from the Bible meetings.
The EEOC’s suit also charged that Shepherd Healthcare subjected employees to a religiously based hostile work environment by imposing religious practices and beliefs on them. The EEOC further alleged that some employees were fired because they expressed their objections or opposition to the required religious practices.
Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.
The final judgment, entered by U.S. District Court Judge Sean D. Jordan on Mar. 11, 2021, orders the defendants to provide monetary relief to 10 former employees, as well as to conduct training on Title VII for all employees and managers.
The judgment also prohibits the defendants from requiring or pressuring any employee to engage in religious-based activities, including meetings, social events, conversations, and prayers.
The defendant Tim Shepherd M.D., P. A. filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy soon after the EEOC filed its first amended complaint in this case.
The EEOC learned that Bridges Healthcare P.A. had been created by Dr. Shepherd as a new practice shortly before the bankruptcy filing. The EEOC continued its prosecution of the action because the agency’s statutory authority to enforce Title VII is not subject to the automatic stay provision of the bankruptcy code, and named Bridges Healthcare, P.A. as a second defendant under a theory of successor liability.
“The EEOC stands by those former employees of Shepherd Healthcare who spoke up when they were forced to attend a Bible class and were then harassed and fired after they refused to comply,” Suzanne Michel Anderson, acting regional attorney of the EEOC’s Dallas District Office said in a statement.
Source: EEOC
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