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Suit alleges religious discrimination
By LINDA REDEFFER ~ Staff Writer
A Poplar Bluff woman has filed suit in federal court against her former employer under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 alleging religious discrimination. Trial is scheduled in Cape Girardeau's federal court for Sept. 8, 2003.
Yvonne Hubrins filed suit in March against Wappapello Foods, Inc., doing business as Save-A-Lot, claiming unfair working conditions because she is not a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses and was denied fair treatment because of it.
Hubrins also alleges unfair treatment based on her sex and claims she was fired after taking maternity leave.
A similar suit was also filed in Butler County Circuit Court Division I.
John Albright of Moore, Walsh and Albright, Hubrins' attorney, said the Missouri Commission on Human Rights and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) investigated Hubrins' claim and concluded that she had a right to sue Save-a-Lot. Following such an investigation, Albright said, the EEOC will try to resolve the issue between the two parties. Failing that, it will either bring its own suit or will issue the complaining party a right to sue letter. Hubrins was issued the right to sue letter about a year ago.
In her complaint Hubrins states that she was hired in February of 2000 as a part-time cashier to work at the Wappapello Save-a-Lot. She was pregnant at the time. She took maternity leave Sept. 21, 2001 and delivered a baby girl Sept. 26. Although she expected to take a six-week maternity leave, Hubrins said she called her supervisor after three weeks and learned that she no longer had a job to come back to and had apparently been dismissed on the date she took her maternity leave.
While her supervisor told her she could not hold her job open because she couldn't manage on a reduced staff nor could she get temporary help, Hubrins claims that when the rest of the staff, which is mostly Jehovah's Witness, goes "in the field" for two weeks at a time, their jobs remain open until they return. Hubrins is a Baptist.
In addition, according to the EEOC investigation, "Evidence establishes that in August 2000 prior to (Hubrins) gong on maternity leave, (Save-a-Lot) hired a part time cashier to fill in for (Hubrins) while she was on leave and that during (her) maternity leave, (Save-a-Lot) interviewed a prospective employee and informed her if hired her work hours would be limited due to (Hubrins') anticipated return to work. ...Record establishes that (Save-a-Lot's) store manager filled out a verification of Employee and Gross Earnings statement for (Hubrins) reflecting that she was discharged Sept. 21, 2000, the date she began her leave even after making references to other employees that (Hubrins) would be returning and that her position was being held."
Albright said this was considered a "failure to make accommodations." According to Hubrins, of 10 employees at the store, six are Jehovah's Witnesses.
"People would be gone for two and three weeks for religious reasons," Albright said. "We're asking for the same because she had a child and they refused to provide the same accommodations."
Normally in open cases attorneys advise their clients not to discuss their cases. Hubrins spoke in Albright's presence because she claims that her supervisor and others who work at Save-a-Lot discussed it openly in their Kingdom Hall and as a result her neighbor, who is also a member of the same Kingdom Hall, has been harassing her and her family.
"It took place after I filed my lawsuit," Hubrins said. "As long as I've lived over there I've had no problem with her. She has called us racial slurs and everything. My kids can't play outside unless my husband is out there with them. She did not know anything about me until now, and now she knows everything about me. My kids shouldn't have to go through this. They're just little kids."
Hubrins and her husband have six children, ages 2, 3, 6, 7, 10 and 12.
One instance became so heated that the police became involved, and a report of the incident was filed April 13 of this year when Hubrins' neighbor refused to return a ball her children were playing with that rolled into the neighbor's yard.
Hubrins also said that when she was working at the store, employees there made discriminatory comments in her presence.
"There were comments made like 'Wal-Mart is going over to Jehovah's Witnesses because they don't steal.' It indicates to me that she thinks Baptists steal.
"They were always bringing books, giving me books. My aunt passed away and they brought me books about death; they have different beliefs about death than we do."
Albright said that he is not seeking much in actual damages for his client because "there really was not much in the way of lost wages," he said. "She had to find a new job."
She lost seniority and a few benefits, and for a while after the birth of her last child she held down two jobs. She now works for a major retail store and her husband works for the city.
Albright said they will seek "several hundred thousand in punitive damages."
In their response to the federal complaint, attorneys for Wappapello Foods, Inc., denied all allegations and noted that the case is also pending in state court. Albright said he expects to proceed with the federal case and that the state case will probably be dismissed.
Ira L. Blank, an attorney for Blumenfeld, Kaplan and Sandweiss of St. Louis, working in conjunction with Ron L. Little of Little & Schellhammer of Poplar Bluff, also claims that "(Hubrins) asserted a single cause of action that violates the rule against splitting a cause of action and that the doctrine of claim preclusion required Plaintiff to join in one action."
Because they claim that Hubrins claimed religion and sex discrimination instead of just one or the other, it is a violation and should be dismissed.
In the state complaint, attorneys claimed that the court should strike all references to religious discrimination because Hubrins, when she filled out a complaint form, did not indicate on the form that she was claiming religious discrimination, rather that she was claiming sex and pregnancy discrimination. She did mention religious discrimination in narrative comments on the complaint form.