Protos v. Volkswagen of America, Inc.

• Decision Date: 29 July 1986
• Docket Number: No. 85-3591,85-3591
• Citation: 797 F.2d 129
• Parties: 41 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 598, 40 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 36,337, 55 USLW 2098, Bankr. L. Rep. P 2098 Angeline S. PROTOS, Appellee, v. VOLKSWAGEN OF AMERICA, INC., Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

Page 129

797 F.2d 129

41 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 598,

40 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 36,337, 55 USLW 2098,

Bankr. L. Rep. P 2098

Angeline S. PROTOS, Appellee, v. VOLKSWAGEN OF AMERICA, INC., Appellant.

No. 85-3591.

United States Court of Appeals Third Circuit.

Argued June 4, 1986.

Decided July 29, 1986.

James P. Hollihan (argued), Manion McDonough & Lucas, Pittsburgh, Pa., for appellant; Dennis M. Wilt, Volkswagen of America, Inc. Troy, Mich., of counsel.

James W. Carroll, Jr. (argued), Tabakin & Carroll, Pittsburgh, Pa., for appellee.

Before ADAMS, WEIS, and HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judges.

OPINION OF THE COURT

ADAMS, Circuit Judge.

Under Title VII of the Civil Rights of 1964, employers are required to make reasonable accommodation for the religious practices of their employees. In this case, the district court, 615 F.Supp. 1513, ruled that Volkswagen of America, Inc. (Volkswagen) had violated the statute by refusing to accommodate the request of an assembly line employee to be excused from overtime work on Saturday, her Sabbath. This appeal requires us to consider whether the trial judge erred in determining that accommodation of the request would not cause the company undue hardship, and whether damages were correctly calculated. The company also challenges the constitutionality of the reasonable accommodation requirements. For the reasons that follow, we will affirm the court's decision in part but remand for a recalculation of damages.

I.

Angeline S. Protos is a member of the Worldwide Church of God. Under the tenets of that church, the Sabbath lasts from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. Work is prohibited during this time, and failure to observe the Sabbath is cause for excommunication.

On May 9, 1979, Protos was hired by Volkswagen to work on the assembly line of its plant in New Stanton, Pennsylvania. She was assigned to the Trim Department as an assembler; her task was to connect four color-coded wires to four connectors, and to attach a ground screw. At first, this job did not conflict with her religious principles, since the assembly line on which she worked operated from Monday through Friday and the workday ended before sunset. In August 1979, however, Volkswagen announced that in the upcoming months it would begin to schedule mandatory overtime work on a significant number of Saturdays.

Protos presented her supervisor with a note stating that as a member of the Worldwide Church of God she was unable to work on Saturdays. Her supervisor responded that while he did not believe she could be excused altogether from Saturday assignments, he would seek to devise some solution. Protos, however, made it clear that her religion prevented her from working on any Saturday. Subsequently, she provided her supervisor with a note from her minister explaining that in the Worldwide Church of God there were "no exceptions" to the prohibition of labor on the Sabbath.

Overtime work was scheduled for Protos' shift on September 22, October 6, and October 13, all Saturdays; Protos was absent on each of those days. The company took no immediate action, however, as the company's Industrial Relations Department considered the appropriate response. But following her failure to appear on the next scheduled Saturday, the Industrial Relations Department advised her supervisor that any future absences should be disciplined. When informed of this decision, Protos reiterated her position, and after her absence on December 8, the next scheduled Saturday, Volkswagen issued a formal written warning, the first step in the company's graduated disciplinary system.

Protos then filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), alleging that the company's action contravened Title VII, 42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq. (1982). That action prompted Volkswagen to undertake further inquiry, which convinced the company of the sincerity of Protos's religious beliefs. As a result, the company explored the possibility of assigning Protos to a new post where Saturday overtime was not required. But there was a waiting list of 200 people for transfer to the Facilities Maintenance Department, where such a position was available, and all those on the list had greater seniority. Protos's transfer could not be arranged without a waiver by the employees union, a local of the United Autoworkers of America (UAW), of the seniority provisions of the collective bargaining agreement. On February 1, 1980, Volkswagen requested a waiver, but the union refused.

Saturday overtime was subsequently scheduled on February 2, 23, and March 15. Protos did not appear for any of these days. The company invoked the escalating sanctions for unexcused absences provided for in its regulations, and, after suspending her twice, dismissed Protos on March 15, 1980.

On November 17, 1980, the EEOC issued a determination that there was reasonable cause to believe that Volkswagen had violated Title VII. On February 22, 1984, it issued a Notice of Right to Sue. Protos timely filed suit, and the case was tried, from July 16 to July 24, 1985, before a district judge sitting without a jury.

The principal issue before the district court was the degree of hardship that accommodating Protos's request for Saturdays off would have imposed on Volkswagen. Finding that "defendant suffered no economic loss" because of Protos's absence, and that the "efficiency, production, quality and morale" of her segment of the Trim Department and the entire assembly line remained intact without her, the district court ruled that Volkswagen could have accommodated her "without undue hardship and at no cost." Thus, the company was held to have violated the statute.

Volkswagen had also contended that Title VII's religious accommodation requirement contravened the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Following several federal appellate court decisions, the court rejected that challenge. As relief, the court awarded Protos $73,911.36 in lost pay and benefits; it declined to deduct from that award unemployment benefits she had received during her time out of work. The court also ordered Protos reinstated effective June 1, 1980, although there was no work at the plant currently available. Volkswagen filed a timely appeal.

II.

A.

Section 703(a)(1) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII, makes it an unlawful employment practice to "discharge ..., or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions or privileges of employment, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin." 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e-2(a)(1) (1982). Section 701(j) of the Act, added by Congress in a 1972 amendment, elaborated on this provision by defining religion The term 'religion' includes all aspects of religious observance and practice, as well as belief, unless an employer demonstrates that he is unable to reasonably accommodate to an employee's or prospective employee's religious observance or practice without undue hardship on the conduct of the employer's business.

42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e(j). "The intent and effect of this definition was to make it an unlawful employment practice under Sec. 703(a)(1) for an employer not to make reasonable accommodations, short of hardship, for the religious practices of his employees and prospective employees." Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Hardison, 432 U.S. 63, 74, 97 S.Ct. 2264, 2271-72, 53 L.Ed.2d 113 (1977). ¹

Hardison is the only case in which the Supreme Court has interpreted the extent of the employer's obligation under the statute. There, the employee, also a member of the Worldwide Church of God, worked in an airline maintenance department that operated twenty-four hours a day. A conflict between his religion's demands and his work schedule arose when he was transferred, at his own request, to a new position in the department where he lacked sufficient seniority to avoid Saturday assignments. The union would not agree to a change of assignments for him in violation of the seniority agreement. Hardison also proposed to work only four days a week, but the company refused to accept that proposal.

The Court held that the company did not violate Title VII by failing to excuse Hardison from working on Saturday. In its central holding, the Court ruled that the reasonable accommodation requirement did not compel an employer to abrogate a collective bargaining agreement in order to enable an employee to satisfy religious observances. 432 U.S. at 81, 83, 97 S.Ct. at 2276. As for allowing the employee to work only four days a week, suggested by Hardison as an alternative means of accommodation, the Court held that this would create an "undue hardship" for the company. "Hardison's job was essential, and on weekends he was the only available person on his shift to perform it." 432 U.S. at 68, 97 S.Ct. at 2269. To allow him to work only four days, the Court reasoned, the company would either have to fill his position on Saturdays with supervisors or qualified personnel from other departments, or with employees from his department paid at overtime wages. "Both of these alternatives would involve costs to TWA either in the form of lost efficiency in other jobs or higher wages...." 432 U.S. at 84, 97 S.Ct. at 2277. Relying on the district court's finding that these solutions would have " 'created an undue burden on the conduct of TWA's business' " 432 U.S. at 84 n. 15, 97 S.Ct. at 2277 n. 15, the Court concluded that the company did not have to incur such costs to accommodate Hardison. "To require TWA to bear more than a de minimis cost in order to give Hardison Saturdays off is an undue hardship." 432 U.S. at 84, 97 S.Ct. at 2277.

Since Hardison, several courts of appeals have set forth guidelines to use in evaluating a religious accommodation case: those guidelines are modeled after the shifting burdens of proof employed in race and gender discrimination suits under Title VII. A plaintiff must first...