FedEx may get your letters and packages delivered on time, but it’s unlikely the courier doing the delivery is a Seventh-day Adventist. A number of Adventists who have served as couriers have suffered discrimination over the years, but none was as flagrant as Arthur Brown’s case. Brown was an exemplary employee with an excellent attendance record and consistently high performance reviews. After five years of hauling freight and handling mail at the LAX depot, he got a chance to become a courier. This is a very desirable position.

Brown’s discrimination complaint, filed in March, alleges that FedEx engaged in a consistent and deliberate pattern of blocking his attempts to obtain religious accommodation for Sabbath observance. On one occasion, his manager told him that if he bid for a particular Monday through Friday route, he would change the days off to make sure Brown still had to work on Saturdays. When other Adventists have had accommodation problems, they were permitted to transfer, using the company’s on-line job posting database to find a route that did not involve Saturday work. Brown’s supervisor refused to approve a transfer.

With a discrimination complaint pending with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and an aggressive investigator breathing down their necks, FedEx finally offered to reinstate Brown, not to a courier position, but to a part-time position hauling the heaviest freight back at LAX. Even though this was clearly retaliatory and punitive because it involved a pay cut of more than 50 percent and undesirable, back-breaking work, Brown attempted to return to work, but his company identification was never restored.

Brown’s case is being funded by your annual religious liberty offerings and the North American Division. As of press time, Brown remains unemployed and seeking work. Please pray not only for Brown, but that the case will have a positive impact beyond the parties involved.