After their company fired them for refusing to participate in daily Christian prayers, two non-religious employees in the United States filed a lawsuit against the firm, winning a $50,000 settlement.
Congratulations to freethinkers John McGaha and Mackenzie Saunders for their court victory after being fired for not attending company prayers. https://t.co/RuB2bxVvip via @RNS
— FFRF (@FFRF) August 8, 2023
The two employees, John McGaha and Mackenzie Saunders, filed the lawsuit against Aurora Pro Services, a home repair company based in Greensboro, North Carolina, with the help of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
McGaha and Saunders, who identify as atheist and agnostic, respectively, accused the company of creating a religiously hostile work environment that constituted religious-based harassment.
In their lawsuit, the two employees said Aurora Pro Services, which advertises itself as “Grandmother Approved,” fired them after they declined to participate in the company’s daily prayer circle, where Oscar D. Lopez, the company’s owner, would read Bible verses during the ceremony.
Right?! I’m glad they brought (and won!) a suit against the company. We need to normalize prayer refusal …and bring lawsuits like this when necessary, esp here in the U.S. where prayer before business and/or meeting is more common than ppl realize.
— Imperator Letha (@Letha_Hughes) August 7, 2023
The company, which provides residential contract services such as roofing, plumbing, and heating, first retaliated against McGaha, a construction manager, by cutting his wages in half. He was then fired in 2020, and he also noticed that the length of prayer meetings went up from 20 to 45 minutes or more as time passed.
Saunders was also fired from her job as a customer service representative after working between 2020 and 2021 after she declined to attend the mandated prayer meetings because they conflicted with her beliefs.
The EEOC complaint said Lopez took attendance before some prayer meetings and reprimanded the employees who did not attend. Prayers were also sometimes requested and offered for poor-performing employees identified by name.
The EEOC tried to mediate with Aurora Pro, but the company refused. The commission accused it of malice with reckless indifference to its employees' federally protected religious rights. The company was specifically found to have violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits religious-based discrimination, harassment, and retaliation in the workplace.
Excellent news.
— Mark Steven Georgiou #HumanistBecause (@mark_georgiou) August 7, 2023
The $50,000 settlement agreed upon between the employees and Aurora Pro consisted of back pay to cover the lost commissions and wages of the two workers. McGaha received $37,500, and Saunders received $12,500.
Aurora Pro is now no longer allowed to discriminate or retaliate against its workers based on religion, and they would need to establish “a new anti-discrimination, non-retaliation, and religious accommodation policy and provide training to all managers and employees, including the owner” after a court agreement.
Oscar D. Lopez did not comment on the issue. He described himself on his LinkedIn page as a “Servant. Husband. Father. Devout Catholic.” and the “About” page of Aurora Pro’s website says the firm was named after his late grandmother, Aurora.
“From her, I learned what family means. I learned honesty is the only option. I learned that no matter what troubles I have, the solution can always be found in the Lord,” the company’s About page said.
Melinda C. Dugas, the regional attorney for the EEOC’s Charlotte District, released a statement stating that “federal law protects employees from having to choose between their sincerely held religious beliefs and their jobs” and adding that “employers who sponsor prayer meetings in the workplace have a legal obligation to accommodate employees whose personal religious beliefs conflict with the company’s practice.”
