NC: 2 former employees files lawsuit against firm for not letting them pray at work

United States: Two former employees of a North Carolina contracting who say there were fired for refusing to participate in the firm’s daily “Cult-like” Christian prayer meetings have filed a federal discrimination lawsuit.

In a lawsuit filed on Monday, John McGaha and Mackenzie Saunders stated that the owner of Aurora Pro Services “created a hostile work environment, based on religion” and openly threatened to fire workers who did not attend the sessions.

As per the sources, the owner mentioned in the statement, “You have to participate. If you do not take part, that is okay, and you don’t have to work here. You are getting paid to be here.”

Moreover, Saunders stated in the lawsuit that the prayer meetings “lasted nearly an hour during which. Defendant’s owner would pray as well as recite scripture from the Bible.”

The lawsuit said, “Ms Saunders describes the behaviour as ‘ranting. Ms Saunders started to feel as though the meetings became ‘cult-like’ after the owner required everyone to recite the Catholic version of the Lord’s Prayer in unison.”

Along with this, the lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court in Greensboro, North Carolina. On the same day, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a high school football coach in Washington state knelt and prayed on the field after the Constitution protected games.

The complaint identifies the company as the defendant and does not name the owner. Public records, LinkedIn, as well as an operator at Aurora Pro Service, identified the owner as Oscar D. Lopez, 40-year-old.

Lopez did not respond to a request for comment through email. And when a reporter called Aurora Pro Service to leave a message, one employee hung up.

Furthermore, the company website does not explicitly say one has to be Christian to work there but says, “The solution can always be found in the Lord.”

Mary Kate Littlejohn, who is the trial attorney for the United States Equal Employment Opportunities Commission, or EEOC, filed the lawsuit, “We cannot provide any additional information beyond what is in the complaint.”