SJC Rules in Favor of Rastafarian Who Alleged Discrimination

December 2, 2008

Author: Martin Finucane

Source: The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/12/sjc_win_for_ras.html?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed7

The right of a business to control its public image doesn’t trump workers’ right to dress or groom themselves differently if they are required to do so by their religious beliefs, the state’s highest court ruled today.

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled in the case of Bobby T. Brown, a Rastafarian who worked as technician at a Hadley Jiffy Lube owned by F.L. Roberts & Co. Inc.

Brown’s religion doesn’t permit him to shave or cut his hair. When the company instituted a new policy that required employees who worked with customers to be clean-shaven, Brown was only allowed to work out of sight from customers in the lower bay of the oil change shop, the court said in an opinion written by Justice Roderick Ireland.

Brown sued in 2006, saying he had been a victim of religious discrimination. A lower court judge ruled in favor of the company, saying that the company had a right to control its public image and it would be an “undue hardship” for the business to exempt Brown from the grooming policy.

But the SJC, in an opinion written by Ireland, disagreed. “We ... conclude that an exemption from a grooming policy cannot constitute an undue hardship as a matter of law,” the opinion said.