Dynamic
Medical Services, Inc. (DMS), a Miami company owned by Dr. Dennis Nobbe
which provides medical and chiropractic services, has agreed to settle a
religious discrimination lawsuit filed against it in the federal district
court in Miami by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
According to the EEOC, DMS had required its employees to participate in Scientology religious training and practices, and fired two of them for refusing to do so.
Dynamic
has two clinical locations, one at 8303 S.W. 40th Street (Bird Road) in Miami,
and the other at 1685 West 49th Street, Suite #1104, in Hialeah, at the
Westland Mall.
The
EEOC’s investigation disclosed that DMS required its employees to spend at
least half their work days in courses that involved Scientology religious
practices, such as screaming at ashtrays or staring at someone for eight
hours without moving. The company also instructed employees to attend
courses at a Church of Scientology. Additionally, the company
required one employee to undergo an "audit" by connecting herself to
an Electropsychometer or "E-meter," which Scientologists believe
is a religious artifact, and required her to undergo "purification"
treatment at the Church of Scientology.
According
to the EEOC's suit, employees repeatedly asked not to attend the religious
courses, but were told that it was a requirement of their jobs. When two
of them – one a Jehovah’s Witness -- refused to participate in Scientology
religious practices and objected to conforming to Scientology religious
beliefs, they were terminated from their jobs by Nobbe as retaliation.
In
its court complaint, the EEOC alleged that Nobbe’s employees “were subjected to
a hostile work environment based on religion by Dynamic’s unwelcome imposition
upon them of Scientology religious views and practices”.
Such
practices violate Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, which
prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion, including forcing employees
to conform to a particular religion.
According to
the terms of the settlement agreement, which was approved on December 18, 2013,
by U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams through an order called a Consent
Decree, DMS agreed to pay $170,000.00 to settle the lawsuit. Payments were
to be made to eight affected employees and former employees in amounts ranging
from $500.00 to $54,400.00. DMS did not admit to any wrongdoing in the
settlement.
The
settlement agreement also requires DMS to accommodate employees who
complain about attending and/or participating in religious courses or
other religious work-related activities for religious reasons; to notify the
EEOC if any employees request a religious accommodation; to adopt an
anti-discrimination policy that explains to employees their rights under
Title VII with respect to religious discrimination; and to conduct
training for DMS employees covering Title VII, and specifically focusing
on religious discrimination.
"The
law is clear: An employer cannot force his or her religion on staff by
mandating that employees practice or espouse a certain religion, and
cannot refuse to accommodate employees after they object to such
discriminatory employment practices,” said Robert Weisberg, regional attorney
for the EEOC's Miami District.
When
the lawsuit was filed last year, DMS denied the EEOC’s allegations, stating
that “Dynamic Medical Services prides itself on the diversity of its staff and
denies that it engaged in any improper or unlawful actions with regards to its
employees.”
In
the settlement agreement DMS asserted that “it neither terminated nor caused
the termination of any employee for religious or any other prohibited reasons”;
denied that any religious practice, procedure, or requirement was present in its
workplaces; and also denied that it engaged in any other wrong-doing asserted
in the EEOC’s complaint.
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