EEOC v. Sambo's of Georgia, Inc., Civ. A. No. C80-1164A.

• Decision Date: 30 December 1981
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. C80-1164A.
• Parties: EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION v. SAMBO'S OF GEORGIA, INC. and Sambo's Restaurants, Inc. d/b/a Sambo's and Sambo's Restaurant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Georgia

530 F. Supp. 86

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION v. SAMBO'S OF GEORGIA, INC. and Sambo's Restaurants, Inc. d/b/a Sambo's and Sambo's Restaurant.

Civ. A. No. C80-1164A.

United States District Court, N. D. Georgia, Atlanta Division.

December 30, 1981.

Ellis L. Bert, Gary E. Trachten, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Atlanta, Ga., for plaintiff.

Hunter R. Hughes, III, John J. Almond, Rogers & Hardin, Atlanta, Ga., for defendants.

ORDER OF COURT

MOYE, Chief Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

This is an action brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (hereafter "EEOC") pursuant to §§ 706(f)(1), (3) and (g) of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., alleging unlawful discrimination in employment on the part of the defendants Sambo's Restaurants, Inc. and Sambo's of Georgia, Inc. The action is brought on the basis of a charge filed with the EEOC by Mohan Singh Tucker, which charge complained that the defendants have violated Title VII by unlawfully rejecting Mr. Tucker's application for a position as restaurant manager with the defendants on the basis of Mr. Tucker's religion.

The EEOC contends that the defendants rejected Mr. Tucker's application for a restaurant manager position because Mr. Tucker was not in compliance and would not comply with the defendants' grooming and appearance standards, which include a prohibition as to facial hair on restaurant managerial personnel; that Mr. Tucker is forbidden by his religion, the Sikh religion, from shaving his facial hair; and that the defendants' rejection of Mr. Tucker's application on this basis, in the circumstances of this case, constitutes unlawful discrimination on the basis of religion, in violation of Title VII. The EEOC asks the Court to order the defendants to offer a restaurant manager position to Mr. Tucker or, in the alternative, to place Mr. Tucker back at the point in the application process at which he was previously rejected. The EEOC also seeks back pay on behalf of Mr. Tucker and asks the Court to enjoin the defendants' standards regarding grooming and facial hair.

This matter came on for trial before the Court, without a jury, on July 20 and 21, 1981. Having considered all the pleadings, evidence, and arguments of counsel, the Court makes the following Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law.

II. FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Mohan S. Tucker is a sincere and practicing Sikh; that is to say, he believes in and practices the tenets of Sikhism.

2. Sikhism is a bona fide monotheistic religion with approximately 15 million followers internationally, some 300,000 of which reside in the United States. Sikhs are forbidden by their religion from cutting or shaving their facial hair, except in medical emergencies. This requirement of the wearing of facial hair, known as the Kes or Kesha, is an essential tenet of Sikhism. Sikhs are also required to wear a turban which covers and restrains the hair.

3. It is Mohan S. Tucker's practice, and the practice of many other (but not all) Sikhs, to part and wrap his beard around a string which is then tied under a turban.

4. Defendant Sambo's Restaurants, Inc. is a California corporation engaged in the restaurant business in the state of Georgia and in forty-six other states in the United States. At the time of the filing of this action, defendant Sambo's of Georgia, Inc., a Georgia corporation, was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sambo's Restaurants, Inc. On or about January 1, 1981, however, Sambo's of Georgia, Inc. was merged into the parent corporation and ceased to exist.

5. On or about January 24, 1979, Mr. Tucker, who was then employed at a Pizza Hut Restaurant in the Atlanta area, made application to Sambo's Restaurants, Inc. for employment as a Sambo's restaurant manager. In response to a newspaper advertisement, Mr. Tucker visited the Regional Office of Sambo's Restaurants, Inc. in Marietta, Georgia to make his application.

Mr. Tucker filled out an application at the Regional Office and gave the application to Germaine Skoglund, who was a regional recruiter employed by Sambo's Restaurant, Inc. at that time. (Mrs. Skoglund is no longer employed by Sambo's Restaurants). In speaking with Mr. Tucker, Mrs. Skoglund observed that if accepted as a restaurant manager trainee, Mr. Tucker would be required to shave his beard, in accordance with Sambo's' grooming standards. Mr. Tucker responded that he was forbidden by his religion to shave his facial hair. Mrs. Skoglund responded that no exception from the grooming standards could be made on the basis of his religion, and that his application would be denied for that reason.

6. Mr. Tucker's application was denied at that point. No further interviewing or testing was conducted, and no further investigation, such as the checking of references, was made by Sambo's Restaurants, Inc. Sambo's Restaurants, Inc. rejected Mr. Tucker's application for the sole and actual reason that Mr. Tucker would not comply with Sambo's grooming standards. In rejecting Mr. Tucker's application, Sambo's Restaurants acted without any motive of intentionally discriminating against Mr. Tucker on the basis of his religion.

7. Less than 180 days after Mr. Tucker's application was rejected by Sambo's Restaurants, Mr. Tucker filed a charge of employment discrimination with the EEOC against the defendants. The EEOC assigned Charge No. XXXXXXXXX to that charge of discrimination, and served a notice of and copy of that charge upon the defendants at Sambo's Restaurants' corporate headquarters. The EEOC conducted an investigation of this charge, and on July 30, 1979, the District Director of the EEOC's Atlanta District Office issued a determination of reasonable cause to believe that the charge was true, and invited the parties to join the EEOC in the effort to conciliate the matter. Conciliation efforts were unsuccessful. By letter dated December 3, 1979, the District Director informed the defendants that the Commission had determined that its efforts to conciliate the charge had been unsuccessful.

8. Sambo's has established and maintained a uniform grooming policy for all of its 1100 restaurants which forbids its restaurant managers and other restaurant personnel to wear facial hair, with the exception of neatly-trimmed mustaches. The evidence adduced at trial did not establish with precision the date on which these grooming standards were first adopted. It appears, however, that the policy dates back to the opening of the very first Sambo's Restaurant in California in 1957. Sambo's has consistently and uniformly, over the years, enforced its grooming policy.

9. Sambo's requires that its restaurant managers be neatly groomed and that the managers not wear beards, long mustaches, or headwear because the wearing of a beard, a long mustache, or headwear does not comply with the public image that Sambo's has built up over the years. Grooming standards similar to Sambo's' are common in the restaurant industry. Exceptions to the grooming standards of Sambo's Restaurants would have an adverse effect on the Sambo's system as a whole and thus Sambo's has never knowingly permitted any exceptions.

10. Sambo's' grooming standards are also based on management's perception and experience that a significant segment of the consuming public (in the market aimed at and served by Sambo's) prefer restaurants whose managers and employees are clean-shaven. This perception is based on years of experience in the restaurant business, and its accuracy is borne out, without contradiction, by the evidence in this case.

Adverse customer reaction in this market to beards arises from a simple aversion to, or discomfort in dealing with, bearded people; from a concern that beards are unsanitary or conducive to unsanitary conditions; or, as Mr. Oscar Berninger testified, from a concern that a restaurant operated by a bearded manager might be lax in maintaining its standards as to cleanliness and hygiene in other regards. The EEOC put in some evidence as to practices in types of restaurants other than Sambo's, but the evidence shows, without contradiction, that the requirement of clean-shavenness is the norm in restaurants catering to the family trade and that such requirement is essential to attracting and holding customers in that market.

11. An additional basis for Sambo's Restaurants' policy is sanitation. It is beyond question that sanitation is a legitimate concern in the food service industry. A National Restaurant Association survey of consumer attitudes with respect to restaurants, the results of which survey are, in summary form, in evidence in this case, shows that cleanliness ranks as a consideration of utmost concern in the minds of the consuming public. The Court notes that the Chief of the Environmental Sanitation Unit of the Georgia Department of Human Resources has issued "Guidelines for Effective Hair Restraints" for use by the Department's food sanitation survey officers in conducting food sanitation surveys, Item No. 4 of which states:

"Excessive growth of facial hair shall be considered a violation of the food service rules and regulations and will be debited on official surveys."

Rather than permit the wearing of facial hair and risk the violation of the foregoing guidelines (or similar rules or guidelines in other jurisdictions), and open itself up to claims related to its sanitation policies, Sambo's Restaurants has eliminated the risk of noncompliance in this regard by simply forbidding facial hair. This approach to the potential problem of noncompliance is reasonable and justifiable.

12. The evidence shows that relaxation of Sambo's grooming standards as to facial hair on restaurant managers — or exceptions from those standards — would impose an undue hardship on Sambo's in that doing so would adversely affect Sambo's public image and the operation of the affected restaurant or restaurants as a consequence of offending certain...