http://investing.reuters.co.uk/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=media&storyID=nN26242332
Vonage sued over alleged religious discrimination
By Paritosh Bansal
NEW YORK, June 26 (Reuters) - The U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission said on Tuesday it had sued Vonage
Holdings Corp. <VG.N>, alleging the company discriminated
against a Jewish employee and fired him.
The suit compounds the Internet phone company's legal woes
after a patent infringement case. Vonage is appealing a ruling
that it infringed on Verizon Communications Inc.'s <VZ.N>
patents.
The commission alleged in its complaint filed in federal
court in New Jersey that Vonage subjected Mikhail Rozenberg to
discrimination on the basis of his faith -- Orthodox Judaism --
by refusing to accommodate his religion in training sessions
and work shifts.
A Vonage spokesman said he had not seen the suit and could
not comment.
Rozenberg was hired by Vonage in September 2005 as a
technical service agent, the commission said.
Vonage knew when it hired him that he was Jewish and needed
to work during times that did not conflict with his religious
observances, the commission said.
But the company refused to allow Rozenberg, for religious
observances, to miss two days of a six-week training program
despite a policy of allowing other employees to miss sessions
with proper documentation, the commission alleged.
Vonage also told him that he was not a "good fit" and that
when he stopped practicing his religion he could come back, the
commission alleged.
(Additional reporting by Ritsuko Ando)
