Employee Demoted After Displaying Pro-Marriage Views at Work
by Allie Martin
August 30, 2005
(AgapePress) - A computer technician in California has filed a lawsuit against his employer after being reprimanded for expressing his support for traditional marriage at work. The employee at a private Orange County company works at an office where co-workers are allowed to have personal, religious and political messages in their cubicles. But when he placed a bumper sticker supporting traditional marriage in his own cubicle, his supervisor ordered him to remove it. The worker removed the sticker but was still demoted and reprimanded.
Realizing he was being treated illegally, the employee contacted Pacific Justice Institute, a legal organization specializing in the defense of religious freedom, parental rights, and other civil liberties. PJI attempted to resolve the matter peacefully, first contacting and informing the employer that its actions were in violation of state and federal law. However, the California company refused to change its position and continues to ban the employee's pro-marriage message.
As a result, PJI joined with affiliate attorney Laurie Messerly in filing a federal lawsuit on the employee's behalf. Commenting on the new suit, Messerly said it is "appalling that some employers think they can silence workers based solely on their viewpoint." However, she says she is confident "the justice system will right the wrongs done to this employee."
Attorney and PJI president Brad Dacus says the First Amendment prohibits employers from discriminating against a worker based on his or her personal, political, or religious viewpoints. "We commend this employee for taking a stand for traditional marriage," he says, "and we are committed to standing with him in federal court."
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Brad Dacus |
Dacus goes on to explain that the law "basically says when employees are allowed to post personal material expressing their opinions and perspectives on different issues in their own private work cubicle, and it doesn't impact or impair or create a hardship on the employer, then the employer must not discriminate or harass employees because of their beliefs and convictions that are exhibited in their private cubicle." Since other employees at the Orange County firm were permitted to have personal, religious and even political messages in their cubicles, the PJI president contends that it constitutes a violation of the client's free-speech rights for his employer to bar him from doing the same. No workers "should ever have to deal with such outright intolerance, hostility, and tyranny by a manager or supervisor who has a chip on their shoulder" about the institution of marriage, the lawyer says.
Dacus insists that the California company's worker and others like him should not be forced to face unlawful discrimination "simply because they believe in the institution of marriage and support the institution of marriage." In the suit, the Orange County employee is asking for unspecified damages and a return to his former position.
