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There is a particular irony at the heart of this federal lawsuit that is difficult to overlook. Chick-fil-A — the fast food chain that has built part of its brand identity around closing every single one of its locations on Sundays so employees can observe the Sabbath — now finds one of its Texas franchisees at the center of a federal religious discrimination case for allegedly refusing to accommodate an employee's request to observe the Sabbath on Saturdays.

The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit against Hatch Trick Inc., a Chick-fil-A franchisee operating in Austin, Texas, alleging the company violated federal law by denying a manager's repeated requests for religious accommodation, demoting her to a lower-paying position when she held firm, and ultimately firing her when she refused to accept the demotion.

The case, which centers on a woman whose faith requires Saturday Sabbath observance, lands squarely in the intersection of employment law, religious liberty, and corporate accountability — and it raises a question that the EEOC clearly believes has a straightforward answer: when an employee tells you on day one that she cannot work Saturdays for religious reasons, and you agree, and then you change your mind — what happens next matters enormously under federal law.

The Employee, Her Faith, and the Initial Agreement

According to the EEOC's complaint, the employee — a member of the United Church of God, a denomination that observes the Sabbath on Saturday rather than Sunday — made her religious requirement explicit from the very beginning. During her job interview in August 2023, she requested that she not be scheduled to work on Saturdays.

Hatch Trick agreed. For several months, the arrangement held. The employee worked as a dispatch manager at one of the franchisee's Austin locations, overseeing delivery drivers, logging 45 to 50 hours per week Monday through Friday, and taking on some additional Sunday hours. By all accounts, the operational arrangement was functioning.

Then, in February 2024, something changed. Hatch Trick began requiring her to work Saturdays — a reversal that the employee immediately challenged by formally requesting religious accommodation. The EEOC says the company denied that request.

She Offered Solutions. They Offered a Demotion.

What makes the EEOC's case particularly pointed is the detail surrounding what the employee proposed when her accommodation request was denied. She did not simply refuse and wait to be fired. She offered multiple workable alternatives: having a delivery driver fill her dispatch role on Saturdays, or limiting any Saturday presence to hours after sundown — when the Sabbath observance concludes under her faith's practice.

The company's response, according to the EEOC complaint, was neither creative nor flexible. Management allegedly told the employee that maintaining her managerial role was contingent on working Saturdays — full stop. In place of her position, they offered a demotion to a delivery driver role, a reassignment that came with lower pay, reduced benefits, and fewer hours.

She refused. The company fired her.

"Religious discrimination in the workplace is unlawful, and employers must make reasonable accommodations for employees' sincerely held beliefs," said Norma Guzman, director of the EEOC's San Antonio Field Office, in a statement accompanying the lawsuit.