By Ashley Fletcher Frampton
aframpton@scbiznews.com
Published Sept. 15, 2009

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a lawsuit against a former Orangeburg-based ambulance company, alleging it discriminated against an employee based on her religion.

The lawsuit claims that Community Transport Services, which served Orangeburg, Bamberg, Calhoun, Clarendon and Dorchester counties, in 2006 fired an employee after she refused to participate in a local Halloween carnival on behalf of the company. The employee, a Jehovah’s Witness, is not allowed by her religion to celebrate holidays, the lawsuit said.

“Employers must respect employees’ sincerely held religious beliefs and carefully consider requests made by employees based on those beliefs,” said Lynette Barnes, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Charlotte District Office, in a statement. “The law requires that employers explore alternative arrangements acceptable to both the employer and the employee to settle the problem.”

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Employment discrimination charges must be investigated by the EEOC before employees can take their complaints to court. In some cases, the EEOC will take on the case and sue on the employee’s behalf.

Barnes has said those cases are relatively few. Her office, which covers Washington, D.C., Virginia, North Carolina and most of South Carolina, has the resources to take on about 30 cases a year. She said the EEOC might choose especially egregious cases, discrimination cases where multiple employees are affected, or cases that could set a significant precedent, among other reasons.

Community Transport Services was purchased in October by Ladson-based American Heritage Ambulance. Cindy Burbage, CEO of American Heritage Ambulance, said the lawsuit is against the former owner of Community Transport Services and that her company is not involved.

Paul Bircheat Jr., who is listed as the registered agent of Community Transport Services with the S.C. Secretary of State’s Office and as an owner on the company’s former Web site, did not return a call seeking comment on the lawsuit, which was filed on Friday.

The EEOC’s lawsuit seeks back pay, reinstatement, compensatory damages and punitive damages for the former employee. It also asks the court to order the company to stop discriminating against employees.