Ford Motor Company Allows Employee Feedback . . . Then FIRES Engineer for Expressing His Faith!

Ford Motor Company Allows Employee Feedback . . . Then FIRES Engineer for Expressing His Faith!

Topics: Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company Allows Employee Feedback . . . Then FIRES Engineer for Expressing His Faith!

Liberty Institute
January 29, 2015

EEOC Complaint

Taking its slogan to “go further” to the extreme, the legendary American automaker goes TOO far in terminating Thomas Banks. We fight back.

When Thomas Banks was employed by Ford Motor Company as a Design and Release Engineer, he expected to have a positive employment experience working for the highly successful maker of the Ford F-Series—the best-selling vehicle in the United States for the past 32 years. After all, as Ford Motor Company promises: “We go further to make our cars better, our employees happier and our planet a better place to be.”

On behalf of Mr. Banks, Liberty Institute—along with our volunteer attorney—filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on Wednesday, January 28, 2015, charging Ford Motor Company with religious discrimination and retaliation after the company fired Mr. Banks based on his religious beliefs.

“We are shocked that Ford Motor Company would terminate one of their employees simply because he expressed his faith,” said Hiram Sasser, Liberty Institute Director of Litigation. “If Ford is allowed to get away with firing Mr. Banks over this comment, we fear that every person of faith will be punished for talking about his or her faith in the workplace. At Ford, if you speak about your faith as it relates to the company, even to the company, you may be terminated.”

Mr. Banks received a company email sent to employees which lauded Ford’s policy to promote pro-homosexual ideas. In the comment section, Mr. Banks submitted a lone comment where he disagreed with Ford’s policy based on his biblical views.
A short and cryptic e-mail from a Ford HR representative was sent to Mr. Banks asking to meet with him and “discuss something that was brought to my attention.”
When they met, the Ford HR representative told Mr. Banks that he may have violated Ford’s Anti-harassment policy, even though he only spoke to the company.
A voice-mail informed Mr. Banks that he had been fired from Ford Motor Company and was not to return to work. “I was stunned to realize that I was fired over expressing my faith in a single comment,” Mr. Banks said. “It felt like Ford was saying, ‘Even if you are respectful, your faith, and you as a Christian, are unwelcome at Ford.’”

While Ford Motor Company may strive to “go further” as its slogan suggests, in the case of Mr. Banks the legendary automaker has gone too far. The law is on Mr. Banks’ side and Ford terminated him even though doing so was unlawful religious discrimination in violation of Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1991 (which expressly prohibits discrimination against employees on the basis of their religion).

“Based on my sincerely held religious beliefs, and in a response solicited by Ford Motor Company, I expressed my objection to its policy of promoting a LGBT program and I was fired by . . . Ford Motor Company for my expression of these religious beliefs and my declaration . . . that in essence this promotional program would trample upon the religious beliefs of Christians, which include myself and other Christian employees.”

Mr. Banks is not alone. His incident is just one in a line of instances of competent employees being stripped of their jobs because they expressed their religious beliefs. But each violation is being opposed by expert attorneys affiliated with Liberty Institute, putting employers on the defense for their discriminatory actions:

Dr. Eric Walsh – A respected health official terminated by the Georgia Health Department for religious beliefs expressed in his church. Liberty Institute filed an EEOC complaint and has exposed embarrassing emails showing unlawful discrimination. We expect to win for Dr. Walsh. Read more.
Craig James – A sportscaster fired by FOX Sports Southwest for his religious beliefs regarding traditional marriage. Liberty Institute subjected company executives to grueling interrogation, revealing damaging contradictions. The Texas Workforce Commission is proceeding with investigating James’ claims of unlawful religious discrimination by FOX Sports. Read more.
Bob Eschliman – An award-winning newspaper editor from Iowa fired for expressing his religious belief on his personal blog. Liberty Institute is aggressively pursuing legal action through the filing of an EEOC complaint against a media company for their clear violation of law. Read more.

We will vigorously defend Mr. Banks, just as we did in the recent victory of former substitute teacher Walt Tutka—who the EEOC found was discriminated against by a New Jersey school district which fired Mr. Tutka for handing a Bible, upon request, to a student.

But in order to continue our win rate of more than 90% and defend more and more individuals who are being discriminated against in their workplaces across America, we need the financial and prayer support of friends like you who will stand with us.

Companies like Ford Motor Company will continue to “go further” as they violate the religious liberty rights and fire people of faith like Mr. Banks. But now is the time to stand and say “no” to this kind of discrimination and retaliation.

Together, we can show powerhouse companies like Ford Motor Company that the protections from religious discrimination in the workplace guaranteed by federal law’s Title VII is tough enough to prevail against any attack on the rights of everyday people to express their sincerely held religious beliefs!