Kroger had to pay $180,000 to workers who were fired after they wouldn’t wear LQBTQ+ pride symbols – IOTW Report

Kroger had to pay $180,000 to workers who were fired after they wouldn’t wear LQBTQ+ pride symbols

MSN:

Kroger has to pay $180,000 to two former employees who were fired after they refused to wear a company apron with a phrase that they considered to be an LGBTQ+ symbol after a lawsuit.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit on behalf of the two employees who were disciplined and ultimately fired from their jobs at a Kroger in Conway, Arkansas. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Brenda Lawson and Trudy Rickerd on September 14, 2020, in Eastern Arkansas District court, according to court documents.

Rickerd and Lawson alleged that Kroger failed to provide religious accommodations for them when they were asked to wear an apron with a “multicolored heart on it.”

“Defendant Employer refused to consider Lawson’s request for a religious accommodation for her sincerely held religious belief,” the lawsuit says. “Defendant Employer continued to discipline Lawson for her failure to follow the dress code by wearing the apron that was contrary to her sincerely held religious belief.”

The lawsuit requested backpay for Rickerd and Lawson and asked for punitive damages and asked Kroger to “institute and carry out policies, practices, and programs which provide equal employment opportunities for Lawson and Rickerd.” MORE

7 Comments on Kroger had to pay $180,000 to workers who were fired after they wouldn’t wear LQBTQ+ pride symbols

  1. …look, can’t you just sell me some message-free groceries?

    If I go to the grocers its to buy food, not be a captive audience for someone to preach to me about THEIR beliefs for the next however many hours, ESPECIALLY someone who I need to give my credit card information to AND someone who has opportunities to tamper with my food and beverages.

    …I’ve worn a uniform most of my adult life in one place or another, for working on cars, industrial equipment, and fighting fires and saving lives in my spare time, even the apron I wore to wash dishes in when I was just starting out.

    And you know what personal ornamentation I was allowed on ANY of those uniforms?

    NONE.

    This was because NONE of my employers wanted me to have ANY message while THEY were paying me other than “I work for (this employer), how can I help you?”.

    Bringing in OTHER crap is just something to fight over, because people can like REALLY weird things even WITHOUT advertising stupid political ideas. Besides, they call it a “Uniform” because you’re SUPPOSED to be UNIFORM. If I WANTED my employees to look like they just got on the plane for a vacation to Bimini, I could just not give them uniforms and tell them to wear whatever in the FIRST place. The uniform is meant to identify and unite the staff, NOT to differentiate them from each other and their customers or to be unnecessarily and pointlessly off-putting.

    And the OTHER reason not to put the political cause celebe du joir on a uniform?

    EVERY ONE of those things I wore and wear a uniform for has exposure to customers.

    The uniform is meant to project an aura of professionalism, of competence, that what I am and what I do is on full display so you can understand it by visual shorthand and so automatically have SOME confidence that I am what you are looking for to accomplish a service that you want, no more, and no less.

    Putting some political logo on that uniform takes the focus off that IMMEDIATELY, and makes it look like not my EMPLOYER, but me PERSONALLY endorses whatever the logo may be for, and by extension, EVERYONE WHO DRESSES LIKE ME.

    Which in ANY group of people united for a paycheck is simply NOT true for everyone.

    So I see a wokie logo like this, I wonder if this means this business places virtue signalling over being an efficient business, doesn’t seem to mind that viewpoint discrimination against their employees like this will show up in my grocery bill sooner or later, and that my cashier may be pissy because they are too busy arguing with co-workers over needless apron ornamentation so now I get the spillover from THAT attitude as well.

    No thanks.

    I’ll just go to IGA down the street. 10 cents more on the drinks, but doesn’t come with the social commentary.

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  2. We have a choice between Kroger or Walmart for Grocery shopping.
    Walmart has crappy products and is governed by China suppliers.
    Kroger has (formerly clicklist) online pickup that you call and they pickup your items and wait for you to drive up to their reserved parking places to dump it off in your vehicle. Most of the time they pawn off rotted produce and dented cans. Their shelves are never stocked and you can barely get past these monster carts that block the isles shopping for 4 to 5 orders at one time.
    We chose shopping out of town.

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  3. Kroger now has ‘digital’ coupons that give greater discounts for the crap they sell instead of regular coupons (like you cut out from paper). You need to setup an electronic (mark of the beast) account to get extra few pennies from regular prices. Most of Kroger best prices come from their own products which I classify as better than dog food (my own opinion)

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  4. You all need to figure out that an employer is just as entitled to political and religious beliefs as a person. It was conservatives that gave corporations personhood, guess you have to deal with it 🤷‍♂️

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