Legal news for Florida employment attorneys. A Home Depot employee was fired for failure to remove a button.
Florida employment lawyers alerts- A former employee of the Home Depot in Okeechobee, Florida plans to file religious discrimination lawsuit.
West Palm Beach, FL—A former employee of a Home Depot store in Okeechobee, Florida claims he was unfairly terminated after he refused to remove a button from his work apron, which had an American flag with the words “One nation under God, indivisible” imprinted on it. The 20-year-old worker is planning on filing a lawsuit against the home improvement company for religious discrimination, as reported by the Sun-Sentinel.
Trevor Keezer claims he has been wearing the button since the day he started nearly 19 months ago. Keezer says he wears the button out of support of his country and for his bother, who is scheduled to be deployed to Iraq. The words come directly from our country’s Pledge of Allegiance. Over the last 19 months Keezer says that not one of his mangers said anything about the button. One supervisor even stated she liked it. It all changed when Keezer began to bring his bible to work with him, that is when he says his manager asked him to remove the button. The Home Depot managers told Keezer if he did not remove the button from his apron he would be sent home.
Keezer was then sent home for the next six days without pay, and then Home Depot fired him. A lawyer representing the terminated employee stated, he is planning to sue the home improvement giant, citing religious discrimination.
Home Depot released a statement saying, “This associate chose to wear a button that expressed his religious beliefs. The issue is not whether or not we agree with the message on the button. That’s not our place to say, which is exactly why we have a blanket policy, which is long-standing and well-communicated to our associates, that only company-provided pins and badges can be worn on our aprons.”
Legal News Reporter: Nicole Howley-Legal news for Florida employment lawyers.