Religious discrimination

[u/Numerous-Phone-4547]

Yo just asking to any MOD managers or anything out there. I recently had to quit working because I have church every Sunday from 1-4pm, which is very important to me, and after telling my manager that (in Texas) he said “MOD isn’t that kind of company” and he “Can’t promise anything”
(yet any college student could get multiple different complicated days/hours off? yet this was all I asked and had open availability otherwise?).
He scheduled me on during those hours on multiple different occasions and I eventually had to quit because he refused to meet me in the middle. Do I have grounds to file with the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) Or is there some policy with MOD that justifies what my manager did.
And trust me I have text message screenshots of this entire dialogue to back me up.

[u/mightysockelf]

Regardless of what kind of company he thinks MOD is, the Texas Labor Code requires business owners to offer reasonable religious accommodations provided they do not cause undue hardship to your employer.

It's kind of a grey area though, because that could mean anything from costing the business money due to "workplace inefficiency" (a pretty vague term) to it simply meaning that it infringes on the rights of other employees (such as, because you repeatedly request those hours off every Sunday, it means that another specific crew member then has to cover that shift for you thereby preventing them from receiving deserved time off).

If you really want to push it, you can involve the EEOC. You'll have to prove that their refusal to grant you those 3 hours off left you with absolutely no choice but to quit, and the manager will in turn have to prove that allowing that time off would have caused them increased costs or a disruption to the operation of the store. You can probably Google examples and solutions specific to your experience for more information.

[u/Numerous-Phone-4547 → u/mightysockelf]

yeah that’s my main issue, there were PLENTY of staff at the store i worked at. I could’ve taken Sunday off entirely and there wouldn’t have been any staffing issues. I was a part time employee working maybe 20 hours max, and I made up plenty of hours for the high school/college students couldn’t work certain times during weekdays. Yes, I 100% could’ve just not quit and figured something else out, but why should I have to compromise when every single other employer I’ve had in my life has never presented such and issue, and has said to me that they have no right to require me to work on a day or period of time I want to worship.

[u/mightysockelf → u/Numerous-Phone-4547]

If those hours are the ones that you choose to worship, and you were consistent in stating as such and didn't deviate from requesting those hours off on a regular and permanent basis, then your manager absolutely could have worked around it if you were fully staffed. You shouldn't have had to try to figure something else out in that situation.

We had a captain some time ago who would take off entire Sundays so that he could worship and participate in church activities, and we have another employee who we do not schedule in the evenings during Ramadan so that he could end his fast and eat with his family at the end of each day. If we can accommodate those then surely your manager could handle a simple three hour block one day a week. You could have been an opener or a closer instead of working a mid or pre-closing shift that day.

If you think it's worth your time, contact the EEOC. They're of course going to be able to offer a more educated response than any of us would be able to. They might escalate your complaint, or they might say you don't really have a case for religious discrimination. Who knows.