To settle a religious discrimination lawsuit, Apple has agreed to pay $150,000 in back pay and damages to a Reston, Virginia, employee whose request for time off during the Jewish Sabbath was denied. The suit, brought against Apple by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), alleged that Apple later fired the employee in retaliation for the request. The manager who denied the request claimed it went against Apple’s weekend-work policy.
Apple has also agreed to provide training for its employees on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This provision requires employers to provide religious accommodation to employees with sincerely held religious beliefs.
“Accommodating an employee’s religious beliefs is not optional—it is an obligation mandated by federal law in the absence of an undue hardship,” according to EEOC Philadelphia Regional Attorney Debra Lawrence. “We appreciate Apple’s willingness to work cooperatively with the EEOC to resolve this matter and take affirmative steps to ensure compliance with federal law.”
Under the Trump administration, the EEOC has increased the number of religious bias lawsuits it brings against employers. According to Rebecca Klar, a reporter with Bloomberg Law, last year saw the highest number of such cases from the EEOC in a decade, even though 2025 had the lowest number of cases filed during the same period.
Many of those cases involved employees from religious traditions that require Friday afternoons and Saturdays off.
Last December, Marriott Vacations settled a similar suit brought by a Seventh-day Adventist, whose religious accommodation for not working on Saturdays was revoked after a change of management.
That same year, Logic Staffing agreed to a $217,500 settlement for a Muslim applicant who was denied employment after requesting a religious accommodation for Friday prayer.
No official count exists for the total number of religious accommodation lawsuits against corporations. EEOC-filed cases represent only a fraction of these, since many employees choose to file private cases.
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