Mavis Tire settles with Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after it says company unfairly denied job to Jewish applicant over Sabbath observance

Mavis Tire Supply LLC, a nationwide tire dealer and automotive service provider, must pay more than $300,000 in a settlement over  its refusal to hire a Jewish applicant instead of accommodating his religious beliefs, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Monday.

The White Plains-based company entered into a conciliation agreement with the federal agency to pay $303,758 to resolve a religious discrimination and retaliation charge against it.

"For more than sixty years, the Commission has enforced Title VII, including its core promise to defend religious liberty in the workplace," EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas said in a statement, adding that,  "No American [should be] ... forced to choose between their faith and their livelihood."

The EEOC said in a statement that when a Jewish applicant applied for a managerial position in central New York, he requested Friday evenings and Saturdays off to observe the Sabbath.

The investigation found that the company then offered him a job as a tire technician, a lower position with a more flexible schedule, but retracted it after the applicant reiterated his request for religious accommodation.

The alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits religious discrimination as well as retaliation against employees or applicants for complaining about that discrimination.

Following the investigation, the parties engaged in the EEOC’s prelitigation conciliation process and Mavis Tire agreed to provide back pay, front pay and compensatory damages as part of the settlement, the statement said.

In addition, Mavis agreed to revise its written policies about religious accommodation and provide training for its managerial retail employees in central New York and nationally, the EEOC said. Management at Mavis also agreed to post a notice highlighting the resolution of this matter and the laws enforced by the EEOC and report on any internal complaints of religious discrimination or retaliation to the EEOC.

Mavis could not be reached for comment.

"We commend Mavis for their commitment to complying with Title VII’s requirement to accommodate job applicants’ and employees’ sincerely held religious beliefs and practices," Arlean Nieto, acting director of the EEOC’s New York District Office, said in a statement. "Employers cannot refuse to hire a job applicant to avoid granting a request for a religious accommodation. Employers need to take reasonable efforts to accommodate an employee’s sincerely held religious belief, unless such an accommodation would pose an undue hardship."