Delta Subsidiary Refused to Allow Shift Swaps for Sabbath Observances, Agency Charged MINNEAPOLIS – Judge Donovan W. Frank of the federal district court in Minneapolis late yesterday entered a consent decree resolving a religious discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against Mesaba Airlines. The decree provides for the distribution of $130,000 to five discrimination victims as well as injunctive relief. In its lawsuit, filed on September 30, 2008, the EEOC alleged that Mesaba Airlines, a regional airline and wholly owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when it terminated a Jewish customer service agent (CSA) because she refused to work on the Jewish Sabbath (EEOC v. Mesaba Airlines, D. Minn. No.08-cv-5308 [DWF/AJB].) The EEOC’s case focused upon an alleged Mesaba policy prohibiting employees from making voluntary shift swaps if they were within their initial...