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Lee Yeager is suing FirstEnergy for religious discrimination, claiming the company wrongly fired him when he refused to use direct deposit to be paid.
(File photo)
AKRON, Ohio -- An Austintown man is suing FirstEnergy Generation Corp. saying that the company terminated him from its internship program because he would not have his pay directly deposited into a bank account due to his self-described Christian Fundamentalist beliefs.
Lee Yeager was terminated from FirstEnergy's program in May 2005 after he refused to have his pay placed in a checking account via direct deposit, which was a requirement of his employment. The case was just filed in federal court last week because the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission only recently issued a right-to-sue letter, according to his attorney, Michael Rossi of Youngstown.
Rossi said Yeager's Christian Fundamentalist beliefs require that he not have a bank account. He said Yeager believes banks participate in "usury," which constitutes loaning money at unreasonably high rates. The Bible strictly forbids this practice in several passages.
The lawsuit alleges the company violated Yeager's civil rights. It is asking FirstEnergy to re-employ Yeager or, if that cannot happen, pay him for the money he lost after being fired, plus other assorted fees.
The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge John Adams in Akron.
The Ohio Civil Rights Commission issued an order Jan. 29 that found the company had failed to accommodate Yeager's religious beliefs. The commission awarded Yeager $12,904.31 -- the amount he would have received had he completed the program, plus interest -- and said the company must stop any discriminatory practices.
Mark Durbin, a spokesman for FirstEnergy, said the company disagrees with the commission's report and is appealing it to a judge in Summit County.
He denies that the company discriminates against any employees based on race, creed or religion and said he is confident the company will prevail in Yeager's federal lawsuit.
Yeager, who now works for titanium supplier RTI, has a history of filing discrimination suits against large companies.
His son, Donald, does as well.
Donald Yeager sued FirstEnergy in March 2014 when the company refused to process an application for an internship when he refused to provide his Social Security number. He believes the number is a "mark of the beast," a reference to a passage in the Book of Revelations.
U.S. District Judge James Gwin in Cleveland threw out the suit, and the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upheld that ruling in February, saying that employers are required by law to provide Social Security numbers to the Internal Revenue Service.
Rossi, who also represents Donald Yeager, said Lee Yeager's case is different because direct deposit is not required by law.