McDonald's Restaurants of California Inc. will pay $50,000 to a Muslim employee who was fired in 2005 after one of its Fresno restaurants refused his request to grow a beard for religious reasons.
The payment is part of an agreement announced Friday by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunities Commission to settle a religious-discrimination lawsuit against the restaurant chain.
Shaheed Khan, who worked at a McDonald's restaurant on West Shaw Avenue near Valentine Avenue, asked his managers in the summer of 2005 to accommodate his religious belief to wear a beard at work, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in Fresno.
The lawsuit alleged that Khan's request was denied and later terminated.