As a recent case demonstrates, favoring employees based on their religion can be as troublesome as penalizing employees for their religious beliefs.
Religion at the Hospital
Stephanie Osei was employed as a nurse at Brookside Hospital Medical Center for 22 years. For the last three years, she worked in the hospital’s Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU), where she consistently received favorable evaluations from her supervisors.
Dr. Adebayo Esan was a critical care physician in the SICU. He was also a pastor for Covenant Nation Church. According to Osei, some SICU staff members shared Esan’s religious beliefs, contributed to Covenant Nation Church, and attended prayer meetings that Esan held at the hospital. Osei did none of those things.
Employee’s Complaints of Religious Favoritism and Alleged Conduct
In an email to the hospital’s director of labor relations, Osei reported that the SICU employees who shared Esan’s religious beliefs received preferential treatment in the form of favorable work assignments, while others like Osei received less favorable assignments and were “subjected to false disciplinary reports.” Further, Osei’s email complained that a SICU nurse who was “a member of Dr. Esan’s religious cohort” had acted “insubordinately and unprofessionally” toward Osei without any consequences.
When two weeks passed without any response, Osei sent a follow-up email. The second email triggered a meeting with the director of labor relations, where Osei repeated her complaints of discriminatory conduct by Esan and expressed her fear of retaliation.
After the meeting, a coworker told Osei that the SICU director of nursing (who was a member of Esan’s church) was seeking complaints about Osei. Soon thereafter, the hospital suspended Osei while it investigated a report that she had “aggressively covered [a] vomiting patient’s mouth with a towel, thereby endangering him.” Osei denied the accusation and noted that Esan was present during the incident and hadn’t expressed any concern or disapproval of her actions. When it completed its investigation, the hospital fired Osei.
Osei sued Brookside Hospital Medical Center and Esan for religious discrimination and retaliation.
Reverse Religious Discrimination is a Real Claim
The hospital’s efforts to have Osei’s lawsuit dismissed were unsuccessful.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on religion and makes it unlawful to retaliate against an employee who complains about religious discrimination in the workplace. In this case, Osei contended she was discriminated against based on her religious beliefs—namely, her “nonmembership in Dr. Esan’s church.” The federal court noted that “an employer discriminating against any non-religious sect member violates the anti-discrimination laws no less than an employer discriminating only against one discrete group.” In other words, reverse discrimination violates Title VII as well. As a result, the court allowed Osei’s claim against the hospital and Esan for retaliatory treatment and termination to go forward.
Importantly, this ruling was on the hospital’s request to dismiss. When a court rules on a request to dismiss, it must assume all the employee’s alleged facts are true and then determine if that is sufficient to state a legal claim. The hospital will have another attempt to have the judge dismiss the case at the summary judgment (dismissal without a trial) stage where the judge can evaluate the evidence. However, this case is still a valuable example that complaints of religions favoritism or retaliation in the workplace can be enough for a legally valid claim that can subject an employer to a lawsuit. Osei v. The Brookside Hospital Medical Center and Adebayo Esan, 25-CV3893 (E.D.N.Y. 4/27/26).
Be Mindful
In today’s workplaces, it’s not unusual for employees to discuss spiritual issues and religious beliefs. You should stay away from promoting a particular set of beliefs and must avoid any suggestion that religious beliefs play a role in employment decisions or an employee’s success.
Charlie Plumb is an attorney in the Tulsa, Oklahoma, office of McAfee & Taft and can be reached at charlie.plumb@mcafeetaft.com