Kroger settles claims of religious discrimination over rainbow symbol.

Kroger will pay $180,000 to settle religious discrimination lawsuits filed on behalf of two workers who objected to wearing a symbol they believe supports the LGBTQ+ community, according to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

A federal agency filed a lawsuit on behalf of former employees of a Kroger store in Conway, Arkansas in 2020. Both were disciplined and eventually fired for refusing to wear aprons emblazoned with a multi-colored heart they believed looked like a rainbow. pride flag, the EEOC said last week in a news release. Kroger denies allegations of religious discrimination, he added.

Part of a marketing campaign introduced at the supermarket chain in 2019, the symbol, in particular, “is not a rainbow and includes only four colors,” the supermarket chain said in court filings.

As part of the settlement, Kroger agreed to create a religious accommodation policy and increase training for store managers on religious discrimination, the EEOC said.

The EEOC said in its lawsuit that Kroger did not attempt to accommodate the workers’ requests for religious exemptions, with one woman offering to wear an apron with a covered logo and another offering to wear a different apron, the agency said. said.

“It is illegal to fire employees for requesting accommodations based on their religious beliefs,” Delner-Franklin Thomas, district director of the EEOC’s Memphis district office, which has jurisdiction over Arkansas, Tennessee and parts of Mississippi, said at the time. “The EEOC protects the rights of the LGBTQ community, but it also protects the rights of religious people.”

Kroger did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The company, which operates stores in 35 states, recently said it will merge with Albertsons and together will employ more than 710,000 people in 4,996 stores and other properties.