Religious Discrimination Complaint Filed By Former Reston Apple Employee

RESTON, VA — A 16-year-old former employee of the Apple Store in Reston filed a religion-based discrimination complaint against Apple Inc. claiming religious discrimination.

The former Apple "genius" consistently received positive performance reviews before his termination, according to the complaint filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

In April 2023, Tyler Steele submitted requests to the store manager Tom Rockwood to have Fridays and Saturdays so that he could observe Sabbath. Steele had completed his conversion to Judaism earlier in the year.

"Steele has a sincerely held religious belief that he must abstain from working during the Sabbath, a 24-hour period that begins Friday sundown and ends Saturday sundown," according to court documents.

After the Rockwood approved the employee's request, he was later transferred to another store and replaced in August by Anthony "Frankie" Dosch, according to court records.

"On or around Aug. 8, 2023, Steele submitted time away requests to have Sept. 15-16, 2023 and Sept. 24-25, 2023 off to observe the Jewish religious holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur," according to the complaint. "His time away requests noted that they were made for religious holidays."

Two days later, the Dosch denied the time-off requests. Steele spoke to Dosch, explaining that he was Jewish and that he needed the days off to observe the religious holidays.

Although Dosch approved the requests, he remarked that Steele's faith "explained his beard."

From late August to early September, employees at the Reston Apple Store were asked to submit their preferred days off for their regular schedule, according to court records. Since the Steele's previous manager had already approved Fridays and Saturdays as his scheduled days off, he did not submit a request.

In September, Dosch told Steele that he could no longer have Fridays and Saturdays off as scheduled, claiming that his new scheduling policy prevented him from giving Steele both days off, court records say. Steele's schedule was changed and he was required to work on Saturdays.

In early September, Dosch told Steele that he “could become a rule Nazi with regards to our policies," according to the complaint.

"On or around Oct. 10, 2023, Dosch pulled Steele aside and preemptively told him not to get into any politics or debates regarding the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel," according to the complaint.

A few weeks later, Dosch issued a written misconduct/policy violation warning to Steele about not engaging in political debates, according to court records. He also told the Steele that his body odor violated the his work attire policy and employee presentation policy.

In November, Steele told Lorenzo Turner, Dosch's people business partner. about Dosch's antisemitic comments and refusal to honor his time off requests for religious holidays, court records say.

In response, Turner told Steele that Dosch had no obligation to uphold his requests for days off for religious holidays and that whether he could have those days off was up to the discretion of the store manager, according to the complaint.

After Dosch told the Steele in early January that he was required to work Friday, Feb. 2, 2024, Steele reminded him that he did not work on Friday or Saturday, court records say.

On Jan. 18, Steele was fired. The reason given for his termination was that he had another violation of the store's grooming policy, according to the complaint.

“Employees should not have to violate their religious beliefs to keep their jobs or live in fear of retribution because they requested an accommodation,” said EEOC Philadelphia Regional Attorney Debra Lawrence. “The EEOC is committed to protecting the religious rights of employees in the workplace.”

Patch reached out to Apple Inc. for comment. This story will be updated once a reply is received.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from failing to accommodate religious practices, except in cases of undue hardship, and from discriminating against employees for religious reasons.

"Title VII also prohibits retaliation against an employee for complaining about or opposing discrimination," according to EEOC. "The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. Apple, Inc., Civil Action No. 1:25-cv-1637) in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process."

On Oct. 1, Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff ordered that the litigation would be stayed until the government shutdown was over and funding was restored to the EEOC, according to court documents. In addition, all pending deadlines in the case would be extended for the same number of days as the EEOC's lapse in funding.

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