Well, crap. I liked eating at Panera...
Tammy McCoy began working at a Panera in Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania in late 2019. As far as she knows, she did a good job. She also happens to be a Pagan, but that should have been irrelevant in the workplace. It’s not like she was asking for any kind of special treatment.
But according to a federal lawsuit she just filed against the company, she was taking a break during a shift last May along with General Manager Lori Dubs and Assistant General Manager Kerrie Ann Show (spelled “Kerri” in the lawsuit) when the latter asked her about her faith. McCoy answered honestly. Things went downhill from there.
Show made a face and immediately said, “You’re going to hell.” Dubs, standing near by, vigorously nodded her head in agreement…
A couple of days later, on or about June 2, 2020, the plaintiff asked Show when the work schedule would be posted. Show told the plaintiff, “Your hours are being cut until you find God.” She reiterated that the plaintiff needed to “find God” before she would return the plaintiff to her previous schedule.
Over the next couple of weeks, Dubs and Show created and subjected the plaintiff to a hostile work environment because of religion. They frequently told the plaintiff things like that her religion is false, that she needs to believe in God, that her soul will be condemned to hell and that they would pray for her soul.
When McCoy told the district manager about what was going on and requested a transfer to another location, she was turned down. When she asked that manager for the number for Panera’s human resources department, she was told, “If you call HR about this, you’ll be fired on the spot.”
Panera Bread has a problem. At least in that location and maybe in others also. An employer should never ask you about your faith, your religion. If that ever comes up just tell them it is not a proper subject for the workplace.
In my own situation I work for a highly religious corporation. Not many of them really are, but they think they are, and the founder was extremely religious. If faith comes up I tell them that in earlier life I studied to be a Pentecostal minister. Today I'm not so religious. If anyone told me I was "going to hell" I would ask them to take those ideas to Sunday School. The store boss would then stop that conversation and tell us all to get back to work. Been there, done that, and you have to work around the hypocritical.
Their web site seems to have been taken down, though their Facebook page was still available at the time of writing.
Not very pleasant hills!
They deserve a piping hot baguette shoved right up their fundamental orifice.
These days a worker has no rights unless they have a strong union to protect and fight for them, no matter what rights are in the laws, at least not while they are still employed by a bad employer. And few are lucky enough to find a lawyer willing to help them sue after they lose their job. This may be more of a regional problem with Panera, but it will change my view of the company, which until now has been positive. The thing about mistreatment of low wage employees like this by chains like Panera, or Wal-Mart for that matter, is that it never gets taken up by lawyers to sue the employer unless it's thru a class action lawsuit, because the amount of money involved is too low to be worth a lawyer's time with the normal contingency fee setup for paying the lawyer with a share of the winnings against the employer.
I had a similar situation when I was younger and working a much more professional job, and had even more to lose. It ended up being my last chance job to succeed in my chosen profession as a hospice social worker, but unfortunately for me at that time, the best job I could get in the field, on my third try in the field, was in a rural Iowa satellite office of a bigger hospice program in a decent sized city. I never had a chance, as the head nurse didn't like social workers or men very much and I was both. And then the two nurses that I shared my patients with were both religious nuts and began undermining me with the patients and families as soon as they and the head nurse decided I was not their kind. So as soon as it became clear to all that I was single, liberal, and non-religious, the hostile environment began and they forced me out of there, even tho I did have some allies in the office, but not enough, as well as the social work director in the main office, but they couldn't save me as the director of the satellite office caved to the head nurse, telling me that I needed to attend a Christian church in order to fit in with the rest of the staff and the clients of the program. Also, because I was sensitive and single, as well as liberal, there were rumors that I might be gay.
If I were stronger then and had the right lawyer I might have had a case for religious harrassment and discrimination, as there were things on the record by the two nurses and the director of the satellite office that were inappropriate and incriminating. I resigned and then found out six months later that the satellite office director finally realized, too late, that the problem was not me, but the head nurse. So she finally stood up to her and fired her, too late for me tho. Still, I took that as vindication that I got screwed and that the staff and organization finally saw the light, not that they would ever admit they screwed me or apologize, as it would make them more open to a lawsuit from me.
I then found out a year later after that that the head nurse had sued the hospice organization over her firing and lost her lawsuit, which I took as further vindication.