It doesn’t take a professor of economics or a professor of math to figure out that if you employ 40,000 people but settle a lawsuit for $162,000, you’re not hurtin’. Like, what’s the big deal if Global Medical Response relented on its policy of banning EMTs from having beards?
This huge EMT company, whose 40,000 employees are responsible for 8,600 ambulances around the world, paid $162,000 to settle a suit brought by the EEOC on behalf of a pregnant paramedic who alleged that the company wouldn’t temporarily give her a reprieve from heavy work. Go take unpaid time off, the company told her. So it doesn’t look like Global Medical is shaking in its boots over a new lawsuit brought by EEOC in a Denver federal court. The company, headquartered in Greenwood Village, is accused of discrimination against Orthodox Jewish, Shikh, Baptist and pagan EMTs by requiring them to shave their beards.
EMT, yes; beard, no — what gives? The company won’t say. But its actions speak louder than words.
Robert Glaspy, a Baptist, Ravinder Singh, a Sikh, Menachem Abrmowitz, an Orthodox Jew, and Jamaal Bryant, a Nordic pagan, were either fired for wearing a beard or refused a job to start with.
They wore a beard for religious reasons or for medical reasons — some skin diseases are exacerbated by shaving. But who needs religious or medicine here? What if an EMT simply wants to wear a beard? Again, EMT, yes; beard, no — what gives?
Meanwhile, although the company is not commenting on the pending litigation, it has said that its employees must use N95 respirators, which fit only on people who are clean-shaven. Exactly why or how often an EMT must wear a respirator, we don’t know; but in any case the EEOC says that there are alternative respirators that can be worn by the bearded EMT. We cannot imagine that for a company with 40,000 employees and 8,600 ambulances, the acquisition of a few alternative respirators would be a big hit, especially given the charge for an ambulance ride these days.
We also cannot imagine that an EMT company finds it easier than just about every other employer to find willing and qualified employees in these post-COVID times. It would seem that the wider the net of potential EMTs, the better.
Be that as it may, Global Medical Response might want to check with the United States Air Force, which was also sued years ago by a Jewish chaplain who was told he couldn’t wear a beard. He took his case all the way up to the Supreme Court and won.
It seems petty and distracting to be dealing with beards given the much bigger challenges confronting EMTs, lawyers, federal agencies and religious theorists, all of whom are tied up in this case. Our advice to GMR: Chill out. Plead guilty. Pay a pittance. Change your policy. Move on. Stick to your important life-saving work.
Copyright © 2022 by the Intermountain Jewish News
