Wellpath faces EEOC lawsuit
Claimant: Job offer rescinded after her request to wear skirt
Last summer, Malinda K. Babineaux was offered a nursing position at the Central Texas Detention Facility in downtown San Antonio.
Babineaux, 46, asked employer Wellpath LLC for permission to wear a scrub skirt rather than scrub pants on the job to comply with her Apostolic Pentecostal Christian beliefs.
Wellpath refused Babineaux’s request and rescinded the job offer, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleges in a lawsuit filed Monday in San Antonio federal court.
The federal agency accuses Wellpath of engaging in unlawful employment practices by discriminating against Babineaux for her religious beliefs in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Spokeswoman for Nashvillebased Wellpath Judy Q. Lilley said the company didn’t do anything wrong.
“Wellpath prohibits discrimination in violation of laws, including based upon religion, and takes its obligations to provide reasonable accommodations very seriously,” Lilley said in an email. “Wellpath engaged in no wrongdoing and trusts the facts of the case will evidence the same. Unfortunately, Wellpath can provide no further comment due to the active litigation of this matter.”
Wellpath employs about 15,000 in 36 states and in Australia, providing medical and behavioral health care services to about 300,000 patients in residential treatment facilities, civil commitment centers, and local, state and federal correctional facilities, its website says.
The Central Texas Detention Facility at 218 S. Laredo St. closed earlier this year after housing federal pretrial inmates for decades downtown. It had been operated by the GEO Group, a publicly traded real estate investment trust based in Florida.
Bexar County commissioners, citing a decrease in revenue the
county received as part of an arrangement with the U.S. Marshals Service, last year voted to end the county’s contract with the Marshals Service.
The building operated as the Bexar County jail from 1962-87. The University of Texas at San Antonio plans to expand its business college on the property, county officials have said.
The EEOC is suing Wellpath for unspecified financial damages on behalf of Babineaux, including back pay and future monetary losses, and pain and suffering. The agency also seeks punitive damages.
Babineaux wears an almost ankle-length skirt and long sleeves as part of her religious beliefs, EEOC attorney Philip Moss said.
“Allowing Mrs. Babineaux to wear a scrub skirt would not have caused a hardship to (Wellpath) or its client as Mrs. Babineaux could fully perform the duties of the position while wearing a scrub skirt,” the EEOC says in its complaint. “In fact, Mrs. Babineaux has worn a scrub skirt for several years while working in medical settings in correctional facilities.”
Some Apostolic Pentecostal denominations encourage members to dress modestly, including full-length skirts or dresses for women at all times. Women also don’t cut their hair or wear makeup.
Just why Wellpath wouldn’t allow Babineaux to wear a scrub skirt, as the EEOC alleges, couldn’t be determined.
“We think that they could have provided her a scrub skirt,” EEOC attorney Edward “Eduardo” Juarez said. “It wouldn’t have been an undue burden of any sort.”
Employers are required to reasonably adjust their dress codes to accommodate the religious beliefs of applicants or employees, unless these actions would constitute an undue hardship, he added.
Out of the thousands of charges that get filed every year with the EEOC, the commission finds that a violation has occurred only in a small percentage of the cases. The agency litigates an even smaller number, Moss said.