Am I imposing my religious beliefs on my co-workers?

Great Debates
61

OK, I understand my misunderstanding. (… did anyone follow that?)

pl, thanks for setting me straight.

But Libertarian, I think that I misunderstood because you were uncharacteristically unclear. Of course, upon re-reading your post, I see where I got tripped up… I am just used to you making complicated ideas easy to understand.

My bad.

62

Sdimbert, while I sympathize with your case, I still think there is a difference between the vague “we don’t need him/her anymore” and “he fails to come to work on days he’s supposed to be here.”

Late last year/early this year, we had an employee who was worthless. He was also fairly old (in his sixties, though I didn’t know it at the time). We fired him, even though he threatened to sue for discrimination. How’d we do it? By documenting every single thing. Every assignment he failed to do or did wrong, every bit of training he ignored, everything. He was fired and we haven’t heard from any lawyers yet (nor do we expect to – he knows he was nailed).

63

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits religious discrimination and requires employers to reasonably accommodate the religious practices of employees and prospective employees. Various state laws also prohibit discrimination because of a person’s observance of the Sabbath or other holy day. In many states, employers may not require attendance at work on such a day except in emergencies or situations in which the employee’s presence is indispensable. Absences for these observances must be made up at some mutually agreeable time or can be charged against accumulated leave time.
Long story short here are three points to summarize what companies are obligated to do to avoid lawsuits:

  1. Employers have an obligation to make reasonable accommodations to the religious needs of employees.
  2. Employers must give time off for the Sabbath or holy days except in an emergency.
  3. If employees don’t come to work, employers may give them leave without pay, may require equivalent time to be made up, or may allow employees to charge the time against any other leave with pay, except sick pay.

Source: Getting Fired by Steven Mitchell Sack, Warner Books.

And Zev, pass out them candies!

64

Doug,

Thanks for setting the record straight.

It is obvious that all of the condusion stems from lawmakers’ ongoing inability to understand the uselessness of the word “reasonable.”

It’s nice that someone took the time to codify such a considerate law; it’s a shame that real-worl concerns make it such a pain in the ass to be considerate.

65

if you tell them the candy is kosher then you are imposing on their minds. if you don’t tell them you are only imposing on their stomachs which is OK.

                                              Dal Timgar