Court Orders Store to Pay $110,000 to Employee Fired for Refusing COVID Shots

In 2021, an Arkansas-based furniture retailer Hank’s Fine Furniture, Inc. with 18 branch stores in four states, violated U.S. federal law by denying a religious exemption to Florida assistant store manager Kaitlyn M. O’Neal for her religious beliefs opposed to getting COVID-19 shots. O’Neal was terminated from her position because she refused to comply with the company’s COVID shot requirement.¹

After a lawsuit was filed by the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 2023, Hank’s Fine Furniture’s store in Pensacola settled for a $110,000 payout to O’Neal for refusing COVID shots.²

Hank’s Fine Furniture’s Violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

The EEOC filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida in Pensacola after it completed an investigation and attempted to settle the case via their pre-litigation voluntary conciliation process.[3] The 10-page lawsuit stated that Hank’s Fine Furniture violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title I of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 when the company engaged in illegal employment practices by denying the assistant manager’s religious exemption.⁴

Bradley Anderson, EEOC Birmingham District Director said:

Federal law requires employers to accommodate sincerely held religious beliefs if reasonable accommodation can be made without causing undue burden to the business.

Marsha Rucker, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Birmingham District added:

This suit should remind employers they must communicate with employees requesting accommodation for religious beliefs and try to accommodate those beliefs whenever reasonably possible. The Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Groff v. DeJoy is illustrative of this point.⁵

Settlement Requires Furniture Store to Pay $110,000 and Additional Restitution

Federal court Judge Casey Rodgers ordered Hank’s Fine Furniture to pay O’Neal $110,000 and also adhere to a three-year decree, which requires the company to implement a written policy assuring employees that the company will interpret religious accommodation requests broadly based on EEOC guidance and will accommodate religious beliefs that “do not put an undue burden” on the company. Managers and employees will also receive updated training about religious accommodation and anti-discrimination provisions.⁶

Judge Rodgers said:

HFI will reasonably accommodate employee and prospective employee religious beliefs during all hiring, discipline and promotion activities as well as when engaging in any activity affecting any other terms and conditions of employment according to the requirements of Title VII (of the Civil Rights Act of 1964). HFI is permanently enjoined from discriminating against any employee on the basis of religion in violation of Title VII.”⁷

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