Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Nats go over .500 the hard way by beating the O’s and Corbin Burnes

A look at what has changed since the Nationals were last above .500

Baseball can crush rookies. Why hasn’t it crushed Trey Lipscomb?

The FTC’s noncompete clause rule goes too far

The next global crisis could come from the sun. We should prepare now.

The crisis Biden and Trump don’t want to deal with

Social Security has to be fixed. But you still need your own savings.

An I bond is now at 4.28 percent. Are they still a good deal?

Use these 6 points to say no to a college you and your kid can’t afford

RFK Jr’s ‘history lesson’ on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine flunks the fact test

The Trump-Biden battle over the 2017 tax cut

That time football legend, rig-driving eligible bachelor Biden was arrested

Postal worker finds WWII-era letters, drives 5 hours to deliver them

Strangers help Sesame Street puppeteer after heirloom necklace was stolen

Teen grabs wheel when driver passes out and school bus veers into traffic

A college professor wants to use Section 230 against Big Tech

Commerce Department revokes more export licenses to China’s Huawei

Apple plays up AI potential in new iPads

‘Look at the U.S.A.’: A photographer’s reflection on post-9/11 conflict

How Trump’s allies amplify his Truth Social messages to the wider world

In photos: The scene after tornadoes struck Michigan and Oklahoma 

Election 2024 latest news: Biden back in the battleground state of Wisconsin

In court, Stormy Daniels pulled a Trump on Trump 

Middle East conflict live updates: WHO says health services in south Gaza will run out of fuel in three days

U.S. signals optimism for Gaza cease-fire as Israel moves into Rafah 

Ask Amy: I want to be closer with my brother. He never reaches out to me.

Miss Manners: I’m offended by a golfer’s skirt choice

Carolyn Hax: Family pushes siblings to ‘make amends’ after their mother’s death

In Arizona, election workers trained with deepfakes to prepare for 2024

France tries to shed its rude reputation ahead of the Olympics

Don’t be a jerk at the airport: A guide for headphones

The new cure-all for vacation excess: the IV drip 

US-VOTE-POLITICS-ECONOMY-BIDEN

iStock

Every day, employees at Aurora Pro Services, a North Carolina home-repair company, would gather for a mandatory prayer meeting, according to a federal complaint. They stood in a circle while leaders, including the company owner, allegedly read Bible scriptures and prayed. In the circle, the owner required Aurora’s employees to recite the Lord’s Prayer in unison and requested prayers for poorly performing employees, the complaint alleged.

The meetings became “cult-like,” Mackenzie Saunders, a former Aurora employee, alleged in the complaint, filed in June 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. Saunders, who is agnostic, attended the meetings after she was hired in November 2020 but stopped going in January 2021.

John McGaha, another former employee, said the prayer meetings were about 10 minutes long when he started in the summer of 2020 and stretched to 45 minutes a few months later. When McGaha, an atheist, asked to be excluded from portions of the meetings, he was rebuked by Aurora’s owner, who said it would be in his “best interest” to attend, the complaint states. Days later, the company allegedly halved McGaha’s pay.

When McGaha asked to skip the meetings a second time, he was allegedly told that he did not have to believe in God but<b> </b>that he had to participate in the prayer meetings.

Aurora fired McGaha and Saunders in 2020 and 2021, respectively, after they objected to the prayer meetings — a move that will cost the company $50,000, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced last week. The company has agreed to pay McGaha $37,500 and Saunders $12,500 to settle the religious discrimination and retaliation lawsuit, which the agency said violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The commission said it attempted to reach a pre-litigation settlement before launching the lawsuit.

Aurora and attorneys for the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday evening. In an October court filing responding to allegations from McGaha, Aurora’s attorneys denied that the prayer meetings were mandatory, that they singled out poorly performing employees and that McGaha was terminated for refusing to participate in the prayers. McGaha objected to the meetings in a “disruptive” and “uncordial” manner on his last day of employment, according to Aurora’s response.

McGaha, a former construction manager for Aurora, joined the company in June 2020 and initially attended the company’s prayer meetings, which also briefly addressed business matters, according to the complaint. He grew uncomfortable as the meetings got longer and when, in one instance, he was allegedly asked to lead a prayer and declined.

Aurora’s owner, who is not named in the complaint, twice denied McGaha’s requests to be excused from portions of the meetings that involved prayer, according to the complaint.

“If you do not participate, that is okay, you don’t have to work here,” Aurora’s owner allegedly told McGaha in front of other employees. “You are getting paid to be here.”

McGaha was fired in September 2020, six days after his second request to skip the meetings, according to the complaint.

Aurora was still holding the meetings that November when Saunders joined as a customer service representative, the complaint states.

While Saunders worked for Aurora, the owner allegedly took attendance at the prayer meetings and reprimanded employees for not attending. Saunders stopped attending the meetings in January 2021 and was terminated several weeks later because she was “not a good fit” for the company, the complaint states.

As part of the settlement, Aurora will train all of its employees, including its owner, on anti-discrimination and religious accommodation policies, the commission said.

“Federal law protects employees from having to choose between their sincerely held religious beliefs and their jobs,” said Melinda C. Dugas, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Charlotte District Office. “Employers who sponsor prayer meetings in the workplace have a legal obligation to accommodate employees whose personal religious beliefs conflict with the company’s practice.”

Stanford University, BA in History and MA in Communications

Daniel Wu is a reporter on The Washington Post's Morning Mix team. He joined The Post as an intern on the Metro desk in 2022 and previously worked for the Seattle Times and the San Jose Mercury News.

Daniel Wu

washpost

N.C. company to pay $50,000 for firing workers who objected to prayers

the-washington-post

Holy Bible 2

stock

name

prism://prism.query/site,/national/morning-mix?limit=20

Morning Mix

The Washington Post's Morning Mix blog covers stories from all over the nation and world.

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/national&limit=20

National

The Washington Post's national news coverage. Get the latest national news, featuring national security, science and the courts. Read breaking national news headlines from across the U.S.