Frum man scamming McDonalds or legitimate lawsuit?

It seems a Lubavitch man applied for a job on McDonald's (not kosher, in the USA). McDonald's responded that if he wanted the job he would have to shave his beard. The applicant offered to keep his beard in a net, but he could not shave it off as it goes against his religious principles. McDonald's said that will not work for them and did not give him the job - the applicant claims only because of the beard, as he says was told by the manager that he would have the job if not for that policy violation.

The applicant is now suing McDonald's for violation his religious freedoms and denying him a job for a reason that goes against his religious principles. He applied for the job, and was rejected, in 2016, so he is suing now, in 2019, for back wages for the 3 years he would have been employed by them had they not violated his religious freedom.
source: Newsweek

One fact I left out is that he had applied for work as a maintenance worker, not as a food server or as a cook. I can understand the beard policy with no compromise for someone in a position handling food, but as a maintenance worker changing lightbulbs, fixing leaky sinks, touching up the paint job, adjusting loose chairs, and the like, I do not see why they cannot compromise on this policy in situations of religious needs. I guess the New York Yankees (now known as the New York Savages) also have a strict no facial hair policy with no compromises ever given, so maybe there is something more to it then a loose hair falling into the food and more of a uniform clean look as part of their corporate image.

I have seen online in social media many people claiming this guy is a fraud and he simply found an easy lawsuit he is looking to make money off. There is no way, they claim, that a frum guy would apply to work, for real, in a McDonald's, so the entire application was just a scam looking to build a case for an eventual lawsuit.

I have no way to know this guy's motives, but I do not see why that has to be true. Today in the USA pretty much anybody can work anywhere with no real limitations. This guy was not applying to serve or prepare treif food, that might be a halachic problem and surely he would not want to do that, but to work in the maintenance department. I doubt there is anything halachically inappropriate about working in McDonalds or in other treif restaurants in a non-food capacity, such as cleaning the toilets, changing the lightbulbs, painting the walls, and all the other issues that require the attention of the maintenance people. In the Land of the Free, in the land of opportunity and freedom, in the current millennium, people can pretty much find ways to do almost anything with few, if any limitations.

While I can understand why some frum people might look at this as a scam and an easy lawsuit, I see no reason this cannot be legitimate. 

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