Report: Vonage Sued by EEOC For Racial Discrimination

By Spencer D. Chin

TMCnet Web Editor

 

Vonage (News - Alert) is in enough trouble as the VoIP service provider remains on shaky financial footing and awaits a court decision concerning its patent dispute with Verizon (News - Alert). But the company may have gotten into hot water with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as well.

 

According to an Associated Press report on several online sites, the EEOC filed suit against Vonage Tuesday, alleging the company engaged in discriminatory practices against a Jewish employee by failing to accommodate his need for religious observances.

 

The lawsuit, reportedly filed in federal court in Newark, N.J., alleges that Mikhail Rozenberg, an Orthodox Jew, was not allowed to participate in a mandatory six-week training program because he had to miss time to observe Jewish holidays in fall 2005. The suit further stated Vonage did not accommodate Rozenberg’s request for a schedule where he didn't work on Saturdays in order to observe the Sabbath, the report said.

 

Hired as a technical service agent in Sept. 2005, Rozenberg was eventually terminated because of his religion, according to the lawsuit. The suit allegedly quoted a management representative telling Rozenberg he would not fit in with the company and could only come back when he stopped practicing his religion.

 

The AP report said the complaint noted that other employees were allowed to be absent from the mandatory training sessions if they provided proper documentation.

 

"This is an egregious case of religious discrimination," Spencer H. Lewis Jr., director of the EEOC's New York office, was quoted as saying in the report. "No one should be told that they can work only when they stop practicing their religion. This is a classic example of how an employer could have accommodated an employee's religious beliefs at no cost, but chose the more costly route of discrimination."

 

Vonage, which reportedly declined comment Tuesday, continues to present its case in the U.S. Court of Appeals, maintaining that it did not infringe on several of Verizon’s patents. In March, a federal jury ordered Vonage to pay Verizon $58 million in damages, plus future royalties, for infringing three of the telecom company’s patents.

 

A ZDnet report earlier this week said a judge hearing the case commented that given that Vonage’s survival as a company is at stake, the VoIP service provider should get more time to devise a workaround to the dispute patents.

However, a Verizon attorney argued Vonage has not presented a specific timetable to develop a workaround, according to the report.

 

Previously, the U.S. Court of Appeals granted Vonage a stay on a previous injunction that would have prevented the VoIP service provider from signing up new customers. The court is expected to rule on the appeal before the end of July.

 

Meanwhile, Vonage was reported to have recently announced it would offer defecting customers a rate of $3.99 per month for 12 months, in an apparent effort to reduce customer defection.