She asked to keep her Saturdays off. The franchise allegedly offered her one way out: a demotion
The EEOC is suing a Texas Chick-fil-A franchise operator, alleging the only accommodation offered to a Sabbath-observing manager was a demotion.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit on May 14, 2026, in the Western District of Texas against Hatch Trick, Inc., which runs the Braker Lane Chick-fil-A franchise in Austin. The complaint says the company denied Fleet Supervisor Laurel Torode a religious accommodation and ended her employment in February 2024.
Torode is a member of the United Church of God. Her Sabbath runs from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, and the EEOC says she sincerely holds a religious belief that she cannot work during that window. The complaint states she raised it during her August 2023 job interview with two restaurant directors, Faye Campbell at the Braker Lane location and Jeremy Jenkins at Parmer Lane, and asked for an accommodation then.
For roughly five months, the arrangement held. From September 2023 until approximately February 2024, the complaint says, the company did not schedule her on Saturdays and did not voice any concerns about it.
Then the company changed course. In early February 2024, according to the EEOC, it told her she would need to start working Saturdays, including during her Sabbath hours. Torode put in a written accommodation request.
On or about February 9, 2024, she met with Campbell and Jenkins. The complaint says she floated several workarounds: another manager could cover Saturday dispatching, a driver could handle it, or she could work a partial shift after sundown. The filing says the two managers declined each idea and told her the only way to skip Saturdays was to step into a non-managerial fleet driver role.
The financial gap between the two jobs was substantial, the complaint says. Fleet Supervisor pay sat at $23.00 per hour with guaranteed time-and-a-half overtime. The driver position paid $12.00 per hour plus variable tips, with manual work like food delivery and automotive maintenance, much of it spent driving or outdoors in inclement weather.
A second meeting followed on or about February 23, 2024, this time including owner Jeff Glover and Business Director Joe Thomson, alongside Campbell. Torode again declined the driver job, the EEOC says, telling them it would be a demotion with lower pay, fewer benefits, and no management title. She offered more alternatives: train team leads to dispatch, add a delivery team lead, have a driver handle dispatch on Saturdays, or let her work only after her Sabbath ended.
According to the filing, the company declined all of the proposals and offered nothing new beyond the driver demotion. The complaint says her employment was terminated on or about February 27, 2024.
The EEOC's two counts under Title VII cover denial of reasonable accommodation and termination because of religion. The agency alleges Hatch Trick acted intentionally, with malice or reckless indifference to Torode's federally protected rights. It is seeking a permanent injunction, back pay with prejudgment interest, compensatory and punitive damages, reinstatement or front pay, and policy reforms.
For HR teams, the case puts a recurring question back in focus: when does an "accommodation" stop being one? The complaint's framing leans hard on that point - an offer that drops pay roughly in half and strips managerial status sits at the heart of the EEOC's denial-of-accommodation theory. It also leans on the interactive process itself. Torode brought multiple options to two separate meetings, the agency says, and the company evaluated none of them.
The allegations have not been tested in court. Hatch Trick has not yet filed a response, and no court has ruled on the claims.
