Lynn Kappelman Featured in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Jury Backs Aldi Over Sunday Work"

Lynn Kappelman was featured in the January 10, 2009 issue of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in the article, "Jury Backs Aldi Over Sunday Work." The article discussed a religious discrimination case in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, where the jury found in favor of the defendant, Aldi, a discount grocery store. The plaintiff, Kimberly Bloom, a part-time cashier at Aldi, accused her employer of not offering her "reasonable accommodations" because she objected to working on Sundays. The jury, after two hours of deliberation, found that though it believed the plaintiff's religious convictions were sincere, the store did try to work with her.

Lynn served as Aldi's attorney with Dawn Solowey as co-counsel on the case. According to the article, during her closing arguments, Lynn told the jury that "the store offered Ms. Bloom, three ways to resolve her problem." The first was that the store offered cashiers a neutral rotation, so each person would only have to work every seventh or eighth Sunday. Lynn also noted to the jury that "None of them [employees] were happy about working on Sundays." A second accommodation Lynn noted was that cashiers were permitted to trade their shifts, so the plaintiff could have tried that as well. The last accommodation that Lynn pointed out was that store management offered to schedule the plaintiff around her religious services. However, that proved unsuccessful because she believes it's a sin to work on Sundays and does not attend a formal church.

In conclusion, Lynn explained that the store did offer the plaintiff several options and instead of taking advantage of any of them, she simply failed to show up for work or call off appropriately. Lynn argued, "People can't do that without repercussions. She left Aldi no choice."

N.B. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was a plaintiff in this case in addition to Ms. Bloom.