Retailer Is Sued Over Headscarf

The EEOC has a bee in its bonnet about headscarves worn as part of an employee’s religion. And HR people would do well to take heed.

In the latest of several similar lawsuits it has filed, the EEOC sued the retailer Abercrombie & Fitch for rejecting a Muslim applicant who wore a headscarf to her interview. The hiring manager said she didn’t fit the chain’s desired “look.”

Last fall, the EEOC filed a headscarf suit on behalf of a Muslim employee in Oklahoma. And earlier this year, an employer in Alabama paid $50,000 to settle an EEOC suit over its rejection of a Mennonite worker’s headscarf.