Balancing Employee Religious Freedom in the Workplace with Customer Rights to a Religion‐free Retail Environment

• Date: 01 September 2012
• Author: Ronald J. Adams
• Published date: 01 September 2012
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8594.2012.00407.x

Balancing Employee Religious

Freedom in the Workplace

with Customer Rights

to a Religion-free

Retail Environment

RONALD J. ADAMS

ABSTRACT

In October of 2009, Trevor Keezer was terminated by

Home Depot for refusing to remove a pin from his

uniform declaring “One Nation under God, Indivisible.”

Mr. Keezer, a cashier with Home Depot, contended that

the button he had worn for over one year before any

action was taken by his employer expressed his support

for American troops and his Christian faith. Were the

actions taken by his employer warranted or was Mr.

Keezer the victim of arbitrary religious discrimination

unrelated to job performance? Religion is becoming an

increasingly polarizing issue in the workplace, forcing

retail managers to balance the respective interests of

employees, coworkers, and patrons of retail establish-

ments. And from all indications, if legislation pending in

Congress is enacted, maintaining the balance will

become more problematic.

Ronald J. Adams is a Professor Emeritus of Marketing, Coggin School of Business, University

of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL. E-mail: radams@unf.edu.

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Business and Society Review 117:3 281–306

© 2012 Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University. Published by Blackwell Publishing,

350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA, and 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK.

On October 23, 2009, Trevor Keezer, a 20-year-old cashier

at a Home Depot store in Central Florida, was terminated

for wearing a button on his uniform proclaiming “One

Nation under God, Indivisible.” Mr. Keezer had worked at Home

Depot for approximately 19 months; he had worn the button for

over one year before any action was taken by his employer.

However, when he began reading his Bible during his lunch

break, he was advised that he would have to remove the button.

Mr. Keezer was offered a company-approved button that said

“United We Stand.” He refused the company’s proposed accom-

modation and was subsequently fired for violating Home Depot’s

dress code—a code that the company described as a “blanket

policy, which is long-standing and well-communicated” to Home

Depot associates. Mr. Keezer, whose 27-year-old brother is sched-

uled for a second tour of duty with the National Guard in Iraq,

responded: “[i] feels kind of like a punishment, like I was pun-

ished for just loving my country.”1Mr. Keezer’s lawyer, Kara

Skorupa, said she planned to sue Home Depot, alleging that Mr.

Keezer was, indeed, the victim of religious discrimination. Inter-

estingly, there have been no reports of complaints by Keezer’s

coworkers or by Home Depot patrons, nor have there been any

published issues with his job performance. As Ms. Skorupa

noted, “[i]t’s not like he was out in the aisles preaching to

people.”2

Public reaction to Keezer’s firing was immediate, intense, and

mixed. Indeed, some 230 responses to the incident were reported

in The Palm Beach Post, an area newspaper.3Representative of the

varied responses to Home Depot’s firing of Keezer are the following

comments posted on the newspaper’s blog:

Funny-I believe Home Depot takes all American currency

that says in God We Trust-sounds like an old fashioned non

violent boycott of Home Depot is in order-pass it on!!

Have the nimrods at home depot ever heard of the First

Amendment?

This country is in trouble when a person is terminated for

wearing a [an] symbol just because the words “under God”

are on it. Are they going to ban the United States flag next

because of what it stands [sic] for?

As a former Marine, as of today, I also will no longer shop at

the unpatriotic “Home Dumpo.”

282 BUSINESS AND SOCIETY REVIEW