Orlando, Fla., Jul 20, 2019 / 05:01 am
An Orlando-area McDonald's is being sued for denying employment to a man on account of his beard.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which filed the lawsuit on the man's behalf, said in their lawsuit that the McDonald's manager told the man that "he could not hire him because doing so would violate McDonald's policies and the law," News 6 in Orlando reported.
According to the lawsuit, the man told the restaurant that he was a Hasidic Jew and that his religious beliefs prevented him from shaving his beard, but that he offered to wear a beard net instead. He was applying for the position of a maintenance worker at the restaurant in September 2016.
His employment was still denied. The EEOC filed a lawsuit with the Orlando McDonald's July 17, three years after the incident. The man is asking for three years worth of back pay for the job in damages, News 6 reported.