# Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Ithaca Industries, Inc.

> Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit · June 8, 1988 · 849 F.2d 116

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9477780

## Case

- **Full name:** EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. ITHACA INDUSTRIES, INC., Defendant-Appellee
- **Court:** Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
- **Decided:** June 8, 1988
- **Citations:** 849 F.2d 116; 46 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 38,038; 46 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1730; 1988 U.S. App. LEXIS 7798
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Wilkinson
- **Judges:** Winter, Russell, Widener, Hall, Phillips, Murnaghan, Sprouse, Ervin, Chapman, Wilkinson, Wilkins
- **Cited by:** 25 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9477780

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- finding the employer had violated Title VII given its “absolute lack of effort at accommodation”

## Opinion text

*120 WILKINSON, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur in Judge Hall’s fine opinion. I agree, for reasons noted in his opinion, that the employer in this case could have done more to accommodate Dean’s religious beliefs without undue hardship to itself.
I write only to emphasize that the statutory terms “reasonably accommodate” and “undue hardship” are variable ones. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(j). The fact that Sunday work was temporary here should not obscure the fact that many enterprises must regularly operate on Sundays and other days of religious observance. Hospitals must serve the sick every day, and airlines must attempt to maintain safe and prompt flight schedules. The dangers police and fire departments were established to combat do not disappear on Sundays or any other day.
The Supreme Court emphasized in Har-dison that employers are not required to abandon seniority systems or to incur substantial costs in order to satisfy the requirements of § 701(j). 432 U.S. at 83-84, 97 S.Ct. at 2276-77. Nor, in my judgment, does that statute require an employer to jeopardize safe and effective service to the public. As Judge Hall notes in footnotes 4 and 5 of his opinion, there were options available to the employer here that did not involve such costs or risks, and for that reason I concur in his opinion.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9477780. Public record. Not legal advice.