Toy Company | To: | Chief Executive Officer | From: | | CC: | Company Attorney | Date: | 10/18/2014 | Re: | Constructive Discharge and Title VII | Comments: | This memo will explain: A) constructive discharge B) Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as it relates to this particular complaint and in general C) recommendations for how the company should respond and also changes to avoid issues with Title VII in the future. | | |
A: Constructive Discharge

Constructive discharge is legally defined as “forcing an employee to resign by making the work environment so intolerable that a reasonable person would not be able to stay” (Prohibited Employment Policies/Practices, n.d.). Constructive discharge is usually recognized within the framework of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Title VII as an illegal employment practice and is considered a form of wrongful termination (Prohibited Employment Policies/Practices, n.d.), even though it is the employee resigning from their position, as opposed to termination by the employer.

An employee has filed a claim against the Toy Company under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The employee is using constructive discharge as her complaint in regards to the Toy Company recently changing the production department work schedules. The company implemented a new policy in the production employees’ shift to four days on, four days off shift rotation schedule policy, as opposed to working only Monday through Friday as the production department had previously.

The employee is alleging that the new policy is discriminating based on religion because a religious holiday falls on a work day and the employee is unable to observe the holy day. The employee alleges that this new shift rotation policy, and therefore being unable to observe the holy day, has