Court Holds Employer’s “Conflict Resolution Tool” Qualifies as a Religion for Purposes of Title VII
Faced with a deteriorating corporate culture, a small wholesale company in New York implemented “Onionhead,” later known as “Harnessing Happiness,” in the work place. The employer described Onionhead as a “multi-purpose conflict resolution tool” to help employees develop better problem-solving and communication skills. A number of employees disagreed with the employer’s characterization of Onionhead as an improvement tool, and believed that the management-requested exchanges of “I Love You” to colleagues, along with the chants and prayers, and work place discussions, e-mails, and mandatory meetings referencing God, spirituality, souls, demons, Satan, divine destinies, purity, blessings, and miracles, among other things, smacked of a religion in which they felt they were being forced to participate. The employer allegedly fired several employees who refused to participate in Onionhead, resulting in a lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). S