E.E.O.C. v. Uia
| Decision Date | 17 December 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 96-2650 (PG).,96-2650 (PG). |
| Citation | 30 F.Supp.2d 217 |
| Parties | EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION, Plaintiff, v. UNION INDEPENDIENTE DE LA AUTORIDAD DE ACUEDUCTOS Y ALCANTARILLADOS DE PUERTO RICO (UIA) et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico |
Ann Thacher-Anderson, EEOC New York District Office, New York, NY, for Plaintiff.
Angel Tapia-Flores, San Juan, PR, Pablo Landrau Pirazzi, Hato Rey, PR, for Defendant.
Pending before this Court are plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment, defendants' opposition to said motion and/or cross-motion for summary judgment, plaintiff's reply to defendants' cross-motion for summary judgment, and defendants' reply to plaintiffs' reply.
David Cruz Carrillo (hereinafter referred to as "Cruz"), a Seventh Day Adventist, was hired by the "Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados" of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (hereinafter referred to as "AAA") as a temporary employee in 1986. Cruz believes that the doctrine of the Seventh Day Adventist Church prohibits him from joining a labor union and that he must abide by that doctrine. When he applied for employment with AAA, he never mentioned nor his personnel record reflected his affiliation to a church that abides him to a specific religious doctrine forbidding him to become a member of a labor organization. However, his application for employment at AAA shows that Cruz attended Seventh Day Adventist schools and graduated from a Seventh Day Adventist college.
The "Union Independiente de la Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados" (hereinafter referred to as "UIA") is a labor organization created in accordance with the Labor Relations Act of Puerto Rico. 29 L.P.R.A. §§ 60 et seq. It represents government employees not covered by the National Labor Relations Act. 29 U.S.C. §§ 151 et seq. UIA represents several types or categories of employees, including operations and maintenance workers of AAA. AAA had, and still has, a Collective Bargaining Agreement (hereinafter referred to as "CBA") with codefendant UIA. The CBA in force between the employer and UIA contains a "union shop" clause and therefore, all employees of the appropriate unit must belong to the labor organization.
On December 5, 1988, Cruz became a permanent employee of AAA. As part of the labor contract executed, AAA delivered to him the written conditions under which he would be employed. As a required working condition he was informed of his obligation to join the UIA and pay union dues. UIA required him to become one of its members, as described by the "union shop clause" of the CBA in force, but Cruz refused to do so explaining that his religious beliefs forbid him to join the constituency of the UIA.
In addition to the requirement that all AAA employees be members of UIA, Cruz objected to Saturday union meetings, public union manifestations or strikes, wording of the union's loyalty oath, and payment of union dues. Through correspondence, meetings, and administrative procedures, UIA expressed its willingness to exempt Cruz from Saturday meetings and public strikes or picketing, to paraphrase its loyalty oath to an affirmation, and to transfer his dues to a nonprofit organization, retaining only the share used to pay his fringe benefits. However, UIA has steadfastly maintained its position that Cruz must be a member of the union.
On March 27, 1991, the Board of Directors of the UIA commenced disciplinary proceedings against Cruz at the regional level, before a committee of three members of the Humacao Chapter of UIA, for his refusal to join the union. As a result of said proceedings, the UIA issued a resolution requesting the Union Central Committee to ask for Cruz's suspension from employment. Cruz appealed said resolution to the UIA's Executive Central Committee which after a meeting held on April 22, 1992, resolved to apply disciplinary measures against him. Throughout the course of these proceedings Cruz was declared a person "non grata" to the UIA.
On July 1992, Cruz filed a grievance with the Grievance Committee of the AAA to protest decisions of UIA requiring him to join the union in order to keep his job. Since Cruz refused to join the union, the decision on his grievance went against him. On October 11, 1993, AAA discharged Cruz for his refusal to join UIA. Two weeks later, on October 25, 1993, plaintiff filed a complaint under Title VII, before FEPA and the EEOC alleging discrimination in his employment for his religious beliefs.
Title VII forbids labor organizations "to exclude or to expel from its membership, or otherwise to discriminate against, any individual because of his ... religion ...." 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(c)(1). Under Section 2000e(j) of Title VII (), added in 1972, Riley v. Bendix Corp., 464 F.2d 1113, 1116 (5th Cir. 1972), the term "religion" includes: "all aspects of religious observance and practice, as well as belief." An employer bears the responsibility of affording reasonable accommodation to an employee's religious observance, practice or belief, unless the employer demonstrates that such accommodation would cause "undue hardship on the conduct of the employer's business." 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(j). "Reasonable accommodation," however, is not a license for an employee to demand any sort of onerous relief, since an accommodation that requires the employer to bear more than a "de minimis" cost constitutes undue hardship. TWA v. Hardison, 432 U.S. 63, 84, 97 S.Ct. 2264, 53 L.Ed.2d 113 (1977).
EEOC regulations impose a duty of reasonable accommodation not only upon employers, but upon unions as well:
Some collective bargaining agreements include a provision that each employee must join the labor organization or pay the labor organization a sum equivalent to dues. When an employee's religious practices [d]o not permit compliance with such a provision, the labor organization should accommodate the employee by not requiring the employee to join the organization and by permitting him or her to donate a sum equivalent to dues to a charitable organization.
29 C.F.R. § 1605.2(b)(2). The courts have interpreted subsection (j) along the same lines, refusing to relieve unions from the reasonable accommodation requirement. See generally Philbrook v. Ansonia Bd. of Educ., 757 F.2d 476, 487 (2nd Cir.1985), aff'd on other grounds, 479 U.S. 60, 107 S.Ct. 367, 93 L.Ed.2d 305 (1986); EEOC v. University of Detroit, 904 F.2d 331 (6th Cir.1990); Tooley v. Martin-Marietta Corp., 648 F.2d 1239 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 1098, 102 S.Ct. 671, 70 L.Ed.2d 639 (1981) (); EEOC v. AFSCME, 937 F.Supp. 166 (N.D.N.Y.1996); EEOC v. Davey Tree Surgery Co., 671 F.Supp. 1260 (N.D.Cal. 1987).
Section 2000e-2(c)(1) and subsection (j) have established a three-pronged test to determine whether a prima facie case of religious discrimination has been fulfilled: "(1) he or she has a bona fide religious belief that conflicts with an employment requirement; (2) he or she informed the employer of this belief; (3) he or she was disciplined for failure to comply with the conflicting employment requirement." Turpen v. Missouri-Kansas-Texas R.R. Co., 736 F.2d 1022, 1026 (5th Cir.1984). See also Philbrook v. Ansonia Bd. of Educ., 757 F.2d 476, 481 (2nd Cir.1985), aff'd on other grounds, 479 U.S. 60, 107 S.Ct. 367, 93 L.Ed.2d 305 (1986); Cooper v. Oak Rubber Co., 15 F.3d 1375, 1378 (6th Cir.1994) (); Anderson v. General Dynamics Convair Etc., 589 F.2d 397, 401 (9th Cir.1978) ().
All of the elements necessary to establish a prima facie case of discrimination based on religion have been demonstrated by the undisputed facts of the case at bar. The sincerity of Mr. Cruz's belief in the Seventh Day Adventist Church and its doctrine forbidding union membership cannot be doubted. (Cruz Dep. at 28, lines 11-14, and at 66, lines 4-25). When UIA insisted that Cruz had to join the union, he explained that his refusal to join was based on the religious doctrine of the Seventh Day Adventist Church of which he was and is a member. UIA communicated this information to AAA, (Vega Dep. 17-19), which then fired Cruz because of his refusal to join.
During his deposition, attorneys for UIA and AAA challenged the sincerity of Cruz's religious beliefs in various ways: Cruz admitted in his deposition that his application for employment at AAA is not accurate when it states that he speaks and writes the English language. As a matter of fact, his deposition had to be taken in Spanish. Also, and contrary to his religious creed, he admitted that he obtained a divorce decree against his wife, in spite of the fact that in his religious denomination divorces are forbidden except in cases of adultery. Cruz also admitted that, again contrary to his religious belief, he executed before a Notary Public the oath administered to all public employees. Finally, defendants' attorneys suggest that plaintiff's religious beliefs are insincere because he had accepted a five-day work-week at AAA in apparent contravention of the Fourth Commandment in the Decalogue requiring six days' labor. (Cruz, Dep.28, 36-37).
Cruz testified that his divorce made him ineligible to serve as a minister of the Seventh Day Adventist Church (Cruz, Dep.65); however, it is clear from the overall record that he remains an adherent. He also testified that when he became employed by AAA, he did not formally swear with hand upraised. (Cruz, Dep. 85,...
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E.E.O.C. v. Union Independiente De La Autoridad
...court granted the EEOC's motion for partial summary judgment and denied UIA's motion. See EEOC v. Unión Independiente de la Autoridad de Acueductos Y Alcantarillados, 30 F.Supp.2d 217 (D.P.R.1998). On September 26, 2000, the district court ruled on the remaining issue of damages, awarding t......