Jehovah's Witnesses are also expected to spend a half day each and every week in "field service", which is their term for doing door-to-door recruiting. Employed JWs typically go out in field service on weekends. Almost always this is an organized congregational activity, which is preceded by a 15-20 minute meeting, generally on Saturday mornings and Sunday afternoons. Most congregations also hold such meetings on Tuesday through Friday mornings, and occasionally weekday afternoons, and even some evenings during summer months. JWs will meet at the Kingdom Hall (and sometimes at the "book study" locations in larger congregations) to make arrangements for performing field service. There is always the 15-20 minute "meeting" held to briefly discuss a "daily text" from the Bible. These meetings are almost always conducted by an Elder, or when unavailable, a Ministerial Servant (deacon). Generally the conductor will perform a "demonstration" how to present the "suggested offer" of the month. The conductor will also assign drivers, and who makes up each "car group". The conductor also makes certain that each car group will "work" a specific "territory", which has been mapped out by the congregation. Every element of this JW activity, like all JW activities, is precisely "controlled", so that the individual JW never forgets who is in charge of everything the JW does.

Jehovah's Witnesses also have three Conventions which they attend each year. Typically, a JW family must travel to these, unless they just so happen to live in the city where such are held. Congregations are divided into groups of approximately 20, which together are called a "Circuit". Each year, the Circuit has a one-day "assembly", held on either a Saturday or Sunday, which is called their "Special Assembly Day". The Circuit also conducts a two-day weekend "Assembly" called their "Circuit Assembly". These two Circuit events are held one in the fall-winter, and one in the winter-spring. Summers are reserved for the main annual WatchTower Convention, which is termed the "District Convention". "Districts" are groupings of 8-12 circuits. These are three-day events held from Friday through Sunday. If a JW family must travel very far for the District Convention, an employee may need to take that Thursday off in order to make preparations and travel.

2009 UPDATE: Effective January 2009, the three meetings previously held on two different weekday evenings, have been consolidated to a single weekday evening.  All three consecutive meetings, now held only at the local Kingdom Hall, last for a total of only one hour and forty-five minutes. Sunday services have also been shortened to approximately 90 minutes. Evidently, Armageddon, when all Employers are going to be destroyed, is finally going to occur "any day now".

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Every year, the standard operating procedure of the WatchTower Society is to intentionally wait until sometime in mid to late January to notifiy Jehovah's Witnesses of the date and location of the summer WatchTower District Convention to which their congregation has been assigned. Since this "standard operating procedure" has for decades repeatedly caused problems for employed Jehovah's Witnesses whose employers require their employees to have requested vacation time prior to this delayed notification, and since those secreted dates and locations have allegedly been finalized many months previous, it is reasonable speculation that this is an intentional act by the WatchTower Society to create legal confrontations between JWs and their employers.

PAUL STONE v. CITY OF LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS was a 2010-11 Civil Service Commission decision. Paul Stone, a Jehovah's Witness of thirty years (thus probably a "Congregation Elder"), is a full-time custodian at Connery Elementary School, who was originally hired October 21, 1997. Stone is the only custodian assigned to the 6:30 AM to 3:00 PM shift. Paul Stone's Disciplinary History included the following:

In October 2008, Stone was issued a written warning after he failed to remain in phone contact with the principal of Connery Elementary School as instructed. In October 2009, Stone was given a written warning for violating the Departmental procedure for locking up dangerous chemicals, and for failing to clean the closet floors. In October 2009, Stone was issued a written warning for taking sick time without notifying his supervisor. In December 2009, Stone was issued a verbal warning because he had asked another employee to come in early and cover for him while he attended a meeting with his Supervisor. In April 2010, an in-depth inspection of the Connery Elementary School was conducted on April 23, 2010, because on April 14, the school was found to be severely lacking in cleanliness.

Although Paul Stone had known the date (Friday-Sunday, May 28-30) and location (Portland, Maine) of the WatchTower District Convention to which his Lynn, Massachusetts congregation was assigned for several weeks, purportedly due to an emergency surgery, it was not until February 19, 2010, that Stone requested vacation leave for May 26 to 28, 2010, and for June 1 to 4, 2010. (May 29-31 was Memorial Day weekend.) The request for May 26-28, 2010 was denied. The request for June 1-4, 2010 was approved. In February, Stone learned that the May 26 and 27, 2010 dates had become available, and he requested and was approved for vacation on those days. Stone also notified his Supervisor that he wanted to attend the WatchTower Convention from May 28 through May 30, and further requested that another custodian be assigned to cover his shift on Friday, May 28. Such was never approved. Stone also spoke with several managers about the possibility of using an "emergency day" on May 28, but allegedly was told on four occasions that he could not do such. On Friday, May 28, Stone telephoned an emergency day into the attendance line. Because Stone is the only custodian on duty at Connery Elementary School, and because another custodian had an actual emergency that day, Stone's absence led to shuffles that left other locations shorthanded.

On June 15, 2010, Paul Stone was placed on a one-day suspension for "insubordination". Stone requested a hearing to determine if just cause existed for his suspension. The hearing was conducted in July 2010, and the hearing office recommended that Stone's suspension be upheld. The Mayor accepted that recommendation. Stone appealed to the Civil Service Commission, which upheld Stone's suspension, stating in part:

As a matter of civil service law, common sense clearly established that the Mr. Stone had no reasonable basis to believe that his situation was truly an emergency. Mr. Stone testified that he was determined all along to attend the Jehovah'ss Witnesses Convention on May 28, 2010. He had made financial commitments that he did not want to forfeit. He testified that he was reminded of the emergency day provision in his contract by Mr. Germano, however Mr. Germano has no specific memory of discussing the emergency day. It is also not credible that Mr. Stone was cleared to take the day off by his supervisor so long as he found another employee to take his shift, even if that employee was already scheduled and expected to work elsewhere. Scheduling and staffing is the prerogative of management; it is not within Mr. Stone's rights to exercise his own personal judgment about such staffing issues. Given his prior disciplinary record, Mr. Stone should have known the rules by which he was expected to abide. The plain truth of the matter is that, having failed to take advantage of his seniority rights in a timely manner, which would have given him the time off, Mr. Stone made his own unilateral decision to absent himself without regard to the consequences. The substantial evidence established that he had known all along that he would do so. His attempt to rely on the emergency day rule was nothing more than a post hoc attempt to find some justification for an otherwise pre-determined decision. The Commission cannot find that the one day suspension meted out for this behavior in unjustified. ... ...

... Mr. Stone's claim to religious accommodation is likely to founder on the issue of undue hardship. Because of the popularity of that weekend, and the late time he submitted his request, other custodians had received permission to be away. Mr. Stone's request would have placed the school department below safe and proper staffing levels. As such, the dates that Mr. Stone requested were not available when he submitted the form, given that there were already twelve (12) custodians scheduled to be away on vacation. The City of Lynn, in conjunction with Local 1736, decided on the maximum number of employees out on vacation based on the number below which they would be understaffed and unable to fulfill their duties fully in all locations. ... Mr. Stone had a reasonable time under the terms of his employment rights in which to notify his employer of his need for days off in such a way as to have avoided the undue hardship he created. It would constitute an undue burden to require the school department to allow Mr. Stone a day off at the last minute. ... The City of Lynn did not discriminate against Mr. Stone, as it could not allow him the vacation day without following normal procedure which would have been an undue burden on their ability to service their buildings and a potential violation of the collective bargaining rights of others. Mr. Stone's dilemma was entirely of his own making and was due solely to Mr. Stone's tardiness in filing his vacation request in accordance with the reasonably established practice in the school department of which he was well aware.

In sum, based on his testimony that he had resolved to take the day off anyway, Mr. Stone did not reasonably believe that May 28, 2010 was an emergency. The City of Lynn was justified to consider his claim that the day in question was an emergency to be insubordinate behavior, and, given his previous disciplinary reprimands, a one (1) day suspension is appropriate.

This CSC decision noted that there was a second WatchTower District Convention at the same location on the very next weekend. Thus, Paul Stone could have worked Friday, May 28, and attended the same program on Friday, June 4, which had been approved as a vacation day. However, Paul Stone argued that "members of a specific congregation only attend their assigned convention". The CSC accepted that untruth as a fact, and then went on to declare attendance at WatchTower District Conventions to be "a required religious practice", and then even went one step further and declared attendance on the exact dates their congregation was assigned by the WatchTower Society to also be "a required religious practice" -- thus negating the possibility that Stone could have avoided all this drama by simply attending the assigned Convention on Saturday and Sunday, May 29 and 30, and then attending the Friday program the very next weekend, on June 4.

This editor was reared as a fourth generation JW, and attended WatchTower District Conventions from the 1960s through the 1990s. I still occasionally converse with active JW family members regarding their displeasure with the locations and dates of WatchTower District Conventions to which their congregations are assigned. To the best of my knowledge, the WatchTower Society has never declared attendance at the WatchTower District Convention to be REQUIRED. Yes, attendance is highly, highly recommended, but attendance has never been "mandatory" -- unless an individual JW was offered and accepted some specific responsibility or duty at that Convention. With regard to attendance at a specific Convention, again, attendance at the assigned Convention site is highly, highly recommended by the WatchTower Society (for obvious planning reasons), but to the best of my knowledge, the WatchTower Society has never REQUIRED its members to only attend the Convention site assigned to their congregation. The WatchTower Society has always consider attendance at a different Convention site to be preferable to not attending at all. Over the decades, this editor has known and heard of numerous JWs choosing to attend WatchTower District Conventions at locations other than the one to which their congregation was assigned by the WatchTower Society -- for any number of reasons, including the inability to get vacation time from their employer. Readers should note that this STONE case is not an isolated instance of JW Employees claiming this falsity. In fact, this falsity is claimed in the majority of similar cases. The problem for Employers is that they are at the mercy of the WatchTower Society and Jehovah's Witnesses to disprove this claim made by their JW Employee. Good luck getting the WatchTower Society, or another JW, to dispute the word of your JW Employee on any issue.

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E.E.O.C. v. OZARKS ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE is an ongoing 2012 Arkansas case which involves a female Jehovah's Witness named Julia Solis. Julia Solis worked as a Call Center CSR for the Coop, which is a Not-For-Profit entity which provides electricity to homes and farms in rural Arkansas and Oklahoma. The EEOC lawsuit alleges that the Coop denied Solis' request for one day off in order to attend a WatchTower function, and thereafter fired Solis (possibly for taking off that day anyway?) The EEOC seeks compensatory damages for Julia Solis, plus punitive damages to teach this Not-For-Profit a lesson.

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E.E.O.C. v. WHITEHALL HEALTHCARE CENTER is an ongoing 2011 Michigan federal court case. In December 2011, on behalf of an Ann Arbor, Michigan Jehovah's Witness female Certified Nursing Assistant, named Bekki Heyes, the EEOC filed a federal lawsuit against Whitehall Healthcare Center alleging that the Ann Arbor nursing home had unlawfully fired the Jehovah's Witness after Bekki Heyes refused to work one single Sunday in July 2010. Heyes had requested not to be scheduled to work on Wednesdays and Sundays, so that Heyes could attend meetings at her local Ann Arbor Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses. Although most specifics are missing from the EEOC's complaint, it sounds as if the nursing home had been cooperating with Heyes' request up until this single instance. Possibly, the nursing home was unable to do so in this single instance. The EEOC is seeking not only backpay for Bekki Heyes, but also money for Heyes' emotional pain and suffering, Heyes' inconvenience, Heyes' humiliation, and Heyes' loss of enjoyment of life. The EEOC is also seeking PUNITIVE DAMAGES against the nursing home. This is an excellent example of tax dollars at work against a tax generator.

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FIELDS v. RAINBOW REHABILITATION CENTER was a 2009-11 Michigan federal court case which involves the 2009 WatchTower Meeting schedule change. Leonardo Jose Fields, a Jehovah's Witness, began working as a Rehabilitation Assistant at Rainbow in 1990. Rainbow provides rehabilitation services to individuals with neurological impairment. In 1994, Leonardo J. Fields requested that he not be scheduled to work on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays as an accommodation for WatchTower neetings on those days. Fields also needed those days off to care for his son from a previous marriage, as those were the days that he had custody of the child. Rainbow accommodated Fields' request until June 2008.

In November 2007, Leonardo Fields filed an internal grievance letter complaining that on several occasions employees were not there to relieve him when his shift ended, thereby requiring Fields to stay beyond his scheduled shift. Fields filed this grievance in response to his being disciplined for failing on November 17, 2007 to stay until appropriate staffing arrived, and leaving the facility without permission from his supervisor. Fields received a 2-day disciplinary suspension and a final written warning as a result of his actions. In his grievance, Fields indicated that after waiting an hour and a half for someone to relieve him, he had to leave to be home to receive his son. In response to his grievance, a review board reduced Fields's suspension to one day, but retained the final written warning.

In fact, Rainbow had been experiencing multiple scheduling problems as multiple employees were being tardy or absent, and/or not willing to work weekends. To help solve the problem, Rainbow instituted a new scheduling policy which required all employees to work their fair share of weekend days. Fields was scheduled to work one Sunday in June 2008, and another Sunday in July 2008. Fields swapped shifts with a co-worker in June, but needed management's assistance for a swap in July. Despite its scheduling problems, Rainbow never again scheduled Fields to work on an "accommodated day".

However, in August 2008, Rainbow sent Fields a memo advising Fields that he was required to work his his scheduled shifts, including his fair share of weekends. Rainbow further advised Leonardo Fields: "You can make schedule change requests, and Rainbow will determine if your request can be accommodated, but you may not dictate to us what your schedule will be."

In November 2008, Leonardo Fields "prematurely" requested that Rainbow add "Wednesdays" to his list of accomodated days, because the WatchTower meetings being held on Tuesdays and Thursdays were going to be consolidated and moved to Wednesdays starting January 2009. However, it is not certain that Fields told Rainbow that this was a future event, nor certain that Fields told Rainbow that WatchTower meetings no longer would be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

On December 23, 2008, Fields received a disciplinary suspension of three days, and a Last and Final written warning for failing to properly supervise a client assigned to him by leaving the client behind at the facility with no supervision. On January 19, 2009, due to Fields' failure to attend a mandatory CPR/FA class on January 13, 2009, Plaintiff was issued a Last and Final written warning with a suspension until Fields completed his recertification training requirements. Although January 13 was a Tuesday -- one of Fields' accommodated days -- he had selected the date of the class. In a subsequent discussion with Supervisor, Fields acknowledged that he was aware of the meeting but that he got stuck with his son at school.

Leonardo Fields also failed to attend a mandatory staff meeting on January 27, 2009 -- a Thursday. Rainbow's policy required the rehabilitation assistant to inform their supervisor prior to the meeting or training session, and an alternative one-on-one session was arranged. Previously, Fields had arranged one-on-one meetings on several occasions when he was unable to attend a monthly meeting, or scheduled certification or training. On a few previous occasions, Fields had even attended monthly meetings even when they occurred on his "accommodated days".

As a result of Fields' failure to attend the January 27, 2009 staff meeting, and his prior policy violations, Rainbow fired Fields on February 24, 2009. In January 2010, Fields filed this federal lawsuit alleging that Rainbow violated Title VII by failing to accommodate his religious beliefs, and by retaliating against him for filing an internal grievance in 2007. Rainbow moved for summary judgment, and such was granted by the USDC in June 2011, stating in part:

... Viewing the evidence presented in a light most favorable to Plaintiff, this Court agrees that Plaintiff fails to present evidence to raise a genuine issue of fact as to whether Defendants discharged or disciplined him for failing to comply with employment requirement(s) that conflicted with his religious beliefs.

With respect to Defendants' discipline of Plaintiff on January 19, 2009, while the CPR/FA training that Plaintiff failed to attend was scheduled on one of Plaintiff's requested days off, he jointly chose that date with [supervisor]. Moreover, in subsequent communications with [supervisor], Plaintiff did not claim that he failed to attend the training due to a conflict with his religious beliefs. Instead, he indicated that he failed to attend because he had been stuck at school with his son.

Defendants did not terminate Plaintiff simply for failing to attend the January 27, 2009 staff meeting which occurred on one of Plaintiff's accommodation days. Rather Defendants terminated Plaintiff because he failed to attend the meeting and failed to contact [supervisor] and arrange alternative one-one-one training. The ability to arrange oneon-one training as an alternative to attending meetings scheduled on one of his accommodated days means, in this Court view, that Plaintiff's religious beliefs did not conflict with an employment requirement. However, even if Plaintiff established a prima case of discrimination, the evidence shows that Defendants in fact accommodated Plaintiff's religious beliefs throughout his employment by not scheduling him on the three and then four days each week that he sought off, allowing him to trade shifts when he was scheduled (whether intentionally or unintentionally) on one of his accommodation days, and permitting him to arrange a one-on-one meeting or training session when such meetings or sessions were scheduled on his accommodation days.

Plaintiff argues that Defendants should not have scheduled staff meetings and training and certification sessions on days that they knew were his accommodation days. In this Court's view, however, it is not reasonable to expect an employer to schedule staff meetings to avoid one employee's accommodated days, particularly where the employee is not able to work four of seven days per week and one of the three days the employee is able to work is a Saturday when the employer already has difficulty getting employers to work. Moreover, Defendants establish that Plaintiff attended meetings and training sessions in the past despite the fact that they were held on one of his accommodated days. Finally, Defendants offered Plaintiff a reasonable alternative to attending those meetings and sessions on his accommodation days, as well as when he was scheduled to work on one of those days, in that they allowed him to arrange alternative one-on-one meetings and/or sessions and to trade shifts with other employees.   ... ... ...

Plaintiff claims that Defendants retaliated against him for submitting his November 2007 internal grievance when they scheduled him to work shifts on Sunday, June 29, and Sunday, July 6, 2008, and scheduled staff meetings on the days he requested to not work due to his religious beliefs. With respect to the Sunday shifts, Plaintiff did not work those shifts as he was able to trade them with other employees. The Court therefore does not believe that he suffered an adverse employment action. Even if he did, however, Plaintiff offers no evidence to establish a causal connection between his internal grievance letter and his two scheduled Sunday shifts. While Plaintiff was disciplined for not attending the staff meeting and training session scheduled on his accommodated days, he likewise presents no evidence suggesting a causal connection between the scheduling of the meeting and session and his grievance more than a year earlier. In short, Plaintiff fails to establish a prima facie claim of retaliation.

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BERRY v. MEADWESTVACO PACKAGING was a 2007-2011 Alabama federal court case which involved a Jehovah's Witness Employee named Thomas Berry. Berry was a resident of Georgia, who attended the Lagrange Georgia Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses. When Tom Berry interviewed for the position of gluing machine operator with Meadwestvaco in 2005, he frankly told the interviewers that he was a devout Jehovah's Witness, and that he would not work during WatchTower meetings (then two weeknights and Sunday), nor during the three annual WatchTower Conventions. Since the operator position's hours were 7:00AM to 3:00PM, Monday through Friday, Berry was offered the position, and he accepted.

In March 2007, the operator position hours were changed to 12 hour shifts of 7-7, with days rotating differently each week. Due to Berry's low seniority, he was assigned to the nighttime 7:00PM to 7:00AM shift. Berry's new work schedule was going to conflict with at least one of Berry's weeknight WatchTower meetings, so, prior to the start of the new schedule, Berry attempted to get one of the daytime 7:00AM-7:00PM operators to switch with him. None of Berry's co-workers wanted his night shift. However, an "assistant operator" did agree to switch with Berry. When Berry confronted his supervisor with his problem, Berry was told that it was company policy that "assistant operators" could fill in for operators only during emergency situations, and that Berry could use his vacation time whenever his work schedule conflicted with his WatchTower meetings.

Berry's requests for vacation time were generally granted, but on the scattered occasions when they were not, Berry did not come in to work. This resulted in accumulation of company attendance policy violations, which Berry knew would eventually result in his termination. Berry scheduled a meeting with his supervisor in July 2007 to discuss the matter, but when the supervisor's previous meeting went into Berry's time, Berry left without meeting with the supervisor. Shortly thereafter, Berry resigned without talking with anyone at Meadwestvaco.

Three weeks later, Thomas Berry filed a charge of discrimination with the E.E.O.C., who eventually issued Berry a Notice of Right To Sue letter. In January 2010, Berry filed his own federal lawsuit alleging that MeadWestvaco constructively discharged him, while failing to accommodate his religious beliefs, in violation of Title VII. In March 2011, the USDC granted Meadwestvaco's motion for summary judgment, stating in part:

To satisfy its burden of reasonable accommodation, an employer must show that the employee was afforded a reasonable accommodation, or that the employer could not reasonably accommodate the employee "'without undue hardship on the conduct of the employer's business.'" ... ...

First, ... the court agrees with MeadWestvaco that substituting an assistant operator for an operator on a regular basis constitutes an undue hardship. As previously stated, an undue hardship is "any act that would require an employer to bear greater than a 'de minimis cost' in accommodating an employee's religious beliefs." ... When an employer is required to replace a trained worker with an untrained one, and the employer presents evidence that this replacement will cause inefficiencies and product quality problems, that is more than a de minimis cost. ...

Second, Berry argues that MeadWestvaco should have altered the work schedules of its employees to cover his shift. For example, Berry noted that Miller stated in his testimony, hypothetically, that MeadWestvaco could have had (1) "lead men" cover Berry's shift; (2) other operators occasionally "stay over" the length of their shift.  ...

This is an undue hardship. The Supreme Court in Hardison explicitly stated that an employer does not have to treat other employees differently merely to satisfy the religious objections of a single employee. ...  By forcing "lead men" to perform extra work, or by forcing other employees to work longer hours, MeadWestvaco would be discriminating in favor of Berry and against his co-workers. ...

Third, Berry suggests that MeadWestvaco could have "seen about some kind of a shift modification." ... However, the Hardison court emphasized that it is an undue hardship to force an employer to change the way it schedules its employees merely to satisfy the needs of an employee with a religious objection to the schedule. ...

Fourth, Berry argues that MeadWestvaco should have asked Foster to agree to a shift swap with Berry, rather than forcing Foster to work extra hours during the days Berry took vacation. ... Forcing unwilling employees to swap shifts with an employee who has a religious objection to the schedule is not required by Title VII. ...

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VALLEJO v. FOUR SEASONS SOLAR PRODUCTS was a 2006-11 New York federal court case. A Jehovah's Witness named Carl Vallejo was hired as a salesperson by Four Seasons at its Holbrook, New York company-owned retail outlet, in January 2003. Four Seasons manufactures and sells sunrooms via direct sales, so its salespersons are expected to call on perspective customers during evening hours and on weekends. Four Seasons allowed Carl Vallejo to take off two evenings during the week, and Sundays, to accomodate his WatchTower meetings.

During 2004, Vallejo took 18 vacation days, although he was only entitled to 14 days. Without providing the requisite 14-day notice, Vallejo advised Supervisor that he wanted to take off September 11, 2004. According to Supervisor, Vallejo failed to mention that this was to observe a religious requirement (probably the WatchTower one-day "Special Assembly Day). Citing the 14 day advance notice rule, Supervisor refused to allow the vacation day, prompting Vallejo to announce that he would take off that day just the same. In response, Supervisor suspended Vallejo's customer leads for 10 days.

On January 31, 2005, without the requisite 14-day notice, Vallejo advised Four Seasons that he would take the next week off so that he could attend a real estate investment training course. In the face of warnings that such a decision could cost him his job, Vallejo took the vacation time without authorization. Thereafter, Vallejo absented himself from work for four months.

Around July 2005, Store Manager allowed Vallejo to work a few leads. When Vallejo requested more, Store Manager asked Vallejo when he was going to come back fulltime. Vallejo neither answered the Store Manager's direct question, nor his email followup. After not having heard from Carl Vallejo in nearly four months, and having covered Vallejo with health insurance the entire time, Four Seasons formally terminated Vallejo in October 2005.

In April 2006, Vallejo filed an administrative complaint with the New York Division of Human Rights charging Four Seasons with unlawful discriminatory practice in violation of the New York State Human Rights Law. The DHR subsequently dismissed this complaint for want of probable cause. In July 2007, Vallejo filed a federal lawsuit alleging (1) disparate treatment; (2) failure to accommodate; and (3) retaliation, in violation of Title VII and New York state law. In March 2011, the USDC granted Four Seasons motion for summary judgement -- for obvious reasons.

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JOHNSON v. AT&T was a 2008-11 Texas state court case which involved an extremely devoted Jehovah's Witness, named Rodney L. Johnson, whom I'm guessing holds the position of "Ministerial Servant" (deacon) in the Elam, Texas Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses. Rodney Johnson began working for AT&T in 1996. In 2006, Johnson began working in the Billing Department as a Supervisor. Johnson was terminated in May 2008 -- allegedly due to ongoing performance issues. In October 2008, Johnson filed with E.E.O.C. a complaint in which he alleged religious discrimination, sex discrimination, and retaliation. Details thereafter are uncertain, but around January 2010, a state rather than federal lawsuit was filed, but was dismissed on AT&T's motion for summary judgment. Johnson's motion for a new trial was granted in June 2010, but again was dismissed on AT&T's motion for summary judgment. In May 2011, Johnson filed a pro se appeal from which the details of this summary are painfully extracted. Outcome unknown.

Rodney L. Johnson's allegation of religious discrimination apparently centers around one single instance in which he had to work late on a "meeting night". While Johnson alleges possible elements of a hostile work environment, he apparently makes no legal claim of such. Johnson alleges that, in April 2007, his supervisor "began displaying disdain for Rodney's religious beliefs and requested that he not proselytize on the job." (How dare she!!!) The supervisor allegedly stated to Johnson, "Jehovah's Witnesses better not knock on my door!"

On Thursday, April 3, 2008, a billing problem arose later in the day, and Johnson's supervisor directed him to do certain things toward solving that problem. Knowing that such would require him to work late and miss part or all of a Kingdom Hall "meeting' that night, Johnson asked supervisor if it would be okay to have the responsible underling to stay late and help him. Supervisor denied his request despite knowing that Thursday was one of Johnson's "meeting nights". However, supervisor did allow Rodney Johnson to immediately cell-phone Elder Dan Eggers of the Elam Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses to let Dan Eggers know that Johnson would not be able to be the reader that evening at the "book study". (Hopefully, there was some other attendee that evening who knew how to read outloud the WatchTower publication's fourth grade level English.) Supervisor later impliedly complimented Johnson on his devotion to his WatchTower meetings, and then told Johnson that he needed to "apply that same principle to this job" -- for which Johnson took offense, and complained about in his legal filings.

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SANDRA S. ALLISON v. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE was a 1999-2004 federal employee EEOC decision which involved an African-American Jehovah's Witness named Sandra S. Allison. In September 1999, Sandra Allison physically assaulted her Supervisor after that Supervisor interrupted Allison while she was on the telephone. Allison was eventually terminated effective January 2000. Allison appealed her termination to the Merit Systems Protection Board, which ultimately affirmed her termination.

Interestingly, as a defense to her having physically assaulted her Supervisor, Allison alleged that the Department of Justice had engendered a hostile work environment over the previous months (summer) by cancelling an approved leave; disapproval of several of Allison's leave requests; placement of Allison on leave restrictions; plus other issues.

The MSPB ultimately affirmed Allison's termination. In the meantime, Sandra Allison also filed an EEO complaint alleging that, in addition to engendering a hostile work environment, the DOJ had also discriminated against her on the basis of her African-American race, her sex, her Jehovah's Witness religion, an unspecified mental disability, and her age. The EEOC Administrative Judge dismissed Allison's complaint on the ground of res judicata -- ruling that Allison should have raised the various discrimination claims in her MSPB case. On appeal, ruling affirmed by EEOC. Reconsideration denied by EEOC.

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SHELBY DAWSON v. UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE was a 1999-2002 USPS employee EEOC decision which involved a male African-American Jehovah's Witness named Shelby Dawson, who worked at a Memphis, Tennessee mail facility. In latter 1999, Dawson requested a work schedule change that would give him every Sunday off so that he could attend his local Kingdom Hall. Dawson's request was denied. Thereafter, Dawson filed an EEO complaint alleging religious discrimination. This case was settled when Dawson agreed to drop the complaint in exchange for USPS's agreement to give Dawson first priority whenever management decided to permit an employee to receive every Sunday off.

SHELBY DAWSON v. UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE was a 2002-2009 USPS employee EEOC decision which involved a male African-American Jehovah's Witness named Shelby Dawson, who worked at a Memphis, Tennessee mail facility. In 2002, Dawson filed an EEO complaint alleging that the settlement agreement had been breached by USPS. USPS ruled against Dawson, but on appeal, EEOC remanded. In 2006, the Office of Federal Operations ruled for Dawson that a breach had occurred, and ordered Dawson's complaint reopened. In 2008, an EEOC Administrative Judge ruled against Dawson, and in 2009, the EEOC affirmed. Noteworthy in this extended case is the fact that USPS never ever implemented a work schedule change that permitted any employee to be given Sundays off on a permanent basis. Incidents characterized as breaches by Dawson were found to be temporary, employees holding different positions, etc. Dawson was occasionally permitted off on sporatic Sundays just as other similarly situated employees were permitted such via special request.

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CHARLES F. MILLER v. HSBC FINANCE CORP was a 2007-10 South Carolina court case. Charles F. Miller, alias John Miller, is a Jehovah's Witness living in Elgin, South Carolina. Miller began working as a mortgage/loan officer for a company eventually purchased by HSBC, in Columbia, SC, in 1999. HSBC had been Miller's employer since 2004.

In 2006, the approximately 67 years-old Miller receive a below average performance rating due to his failing to meet a variety of production goals. The first few months of 2007 did not go much better, and Miller was facing possible termination due to poor performance. During 2007, employees at Miller's work location were required to work late hours on three weekday evenings of Mondays through Thursdays. Miller refused to work Monday and Thursday evenings due to WatchTower meetings on those nights. At a meeting with the HSBC District Manager and Office Manager in mid May 2007, during which all of the above was discussed, Miller left with the impression that he had been terminated because he had refused to work late on Mondays and Thursdays, so Miller did not return to work. HSBC denied such, and alleged job abandonment. However, Miller's termination was coded as "inability to perform", and he was paid a severance of $4772.50.

In June 2007, Miller filed a discrimination complaint with the EEOC and the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission alleging both religious discrimination and age discrimination. EEOC issued a Right To Sue Letter in March 2008, and this federal lawsuit followed. In August 2009, the USDC granted HSBC's motion for summary judgment on Miller's claim of age discrimination, but denied such on the claim of religious discrimination. In a January 2010 jury trial, John Miller won on the issue of failure to accomodate his religious obligations, but lost on his claim of religious discrimination. Miller was awarded $66,650.82 for back pay, $10,130.08 for prejudgment interest, $67,094.10 for attorney's fees, and $3708.02 for expenses.

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MAULDIN v. HALLIBURTON is an ongoing 2008 Texas federal court case. In July 2008, an African-American Jehovah's Witness, named Kevin Mauldin, filed a federal lawsuit in which he alleged that Halliburton-Baroid, of Tyler, Texas, had discriminated against him on the basis of both his African-American race, and his Jehovah's Witnesses religion, during the 15 months he was employed from June 2006 until September 2007. Kevin Mauldin alleges that he was wrongfully fired "on trumped-up false charges that he was trying to be paid for work he didn't do."

Interestingly, Mauldin's lawsuit complains that he was allegedly discriminated against in that he was forced to work rather than attend religious meetings at his Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, but at the same time the lawsuit complains that Mauldin lost overtime pay because his hours as a "truck driver" were reduced from 15 hours per day to 12 hours per day. Mauldin alleges that he was subjected to "racial harassment and offensive work conditions." The lawsuit claims, "Offensive racial jokes were told in [Mauldin's] presence by his manager and others. The manager  also displayed a Confederate flag on his desk, which plaintiff found offensive."

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