Religious Teen Sues Burger King Over Uniform

A teen in Texas has filed a lawsuit against Burger King for religious discrimination.

Ashanti McShan claims that she was fired from her job after she showed up to work in a long skirt instead of black pants. McShan, a Pentacostal Christian, says that her religion forbids her to wear men’s clothing. McShan also said that when she applied for the job in August, 2010, she made it clear that she would not be wearing black pants to work. Burger King, at the time, allegedly told the 17-year-old that it wouldn’t be a problem.

But when McShan showed up to her orientation, the manager asked her to leave because she was not wearing the required uniform.

The lawsuit reads: “The result of the foregoing practices has been to deprive Ashanti McShan of equal employment opportunities because of her religious beliefs and observances as a Christian Pentecostal.”

Attorney Meaghan Shepard, who is representing McShan, said that the case was pretty clean cut. According to Shepard, McShan’s request to wear a long skit instead of pants was reasonable and would not have hindered her abilities to work at Burger King in anyway.

Shepard said:

“The legal standard is ‘undue hardship,’ and in this instance it was a very simple request — to be able to wear a long black skirt and not black pants — and it was initially granted. And then she shows up at orientation, on time, and is then told by the manager to leave and that she couldn’t wear a skirt. She was responsible, tried to get in touch with someone higher in the franchise, and they never responded to her. In our eyes, it was so clear-cut. She’s a very sweet, articulate young lady who was just trying to work her senior year in high school.”

Burger King has not commented about the lawsuit.

Do you think this is religious discrimination?