Apple has agreed to pay $150,000 to settle a religious discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) last year, reports 9to5Mac.
The EEOC’s suit said a 16-year employee at the Reston, Virginia Apple Store, who worked as an Apple Genius consistently received positive performance reviews. However, beginning in August 2023, shortly after he converted to Judaism, he requested an accommodation for observing his Sabbath by not working Fridays and Saturdays.
The EEOC claims his new store manager rejected the request, claiming Apple’s scheduling policy now prohibited him from having both Friday and Saturday off. Fearing he would lose his job if he did not comply, he worked on the Sabbath, against his religious beliefs.
The EEOC also charged that around this same time, and after requesting his religious reasonable accommodation, Apple began disciplining him for allegedly violating its grooming policies, and shortly after he reminded his supervisor of an upcoming day off for religious reasons, Apple terminated him in January 2024, falsely claiming another violation of its grooming policy.
Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employers from failing to accommodate religious practices, absent an undue hardship, and from discriminating against employees based on their religion. Title VII also prohibits retaliation against an employee for complaining about or opposing discrimination. The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. Apple, Inc., Civil Action No. 1:25-cv-1637) in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.
From the settlement consent decree (via Law360):
Within thirty (30) days from the date of entry of the Decree, Defendant shall pay Tyler Steele a total of $150,000 in the amounts and forms specified below:
- a. One payment will be $80,000, which constitutes back pay. This payment will be classified as wages and will be subject to withholdings and payroll taxes. l Defendant’s employer-side taxes and required employer contributions, including those under FICA, are separate from, and shall not be deducted from the back pay payment. Defendant shall report the back pay payment to Mr. Steele and the IRS via an IRS Form W-2, less all legal taxes and withholdings, as issued by Defendant to Mr. Steele.
- b. The second payment will be $70,000, which constitutes compensatory damages and interest. Mr. Steele must provide to Defendant a W9 for Defendant to have an obligation to process this payment. This payment will be classified as non-wage damages, will not be subject to withholdings, and will be paid in one lump sum. Defendant shall report this non-wage payment to Mr. Steele and the IRS via an IRS Form 1099- MISC.
Under the terms of the settlement, per 9to5Mac, Apple has agreed to, among other things, provide training on religious discrimination and accommodation requirements to certain employees in the relevant Northern Virginia retail market, and report denials of religious accommodation requests and complaints of religious discrimination to the EEOC for the two-year duration of the consent decree.
Finally, the consent decree notes that the settlement does not constitute an admission of wrongdoing by Apple, and explicitly mentions that “Apple denied these allegations but agreed to resolve the lawsuit.”
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