# Business Practice Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 8, 2002, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/business-practice-question/131370 "2002-10-08T15:06:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![poissongrand69](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/848f3c/32.png) [@poissongrand69](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/poissongrand69)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2002, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/business-practice-question/131370/1 "2002-10-08T15:06:54Z")
Heres a good question. Is it illegal for a company to grant Holidays off for a certain religion (jewish), and have all the non-jewish employees work those days. If its a regular federal holiday everyone who is jewish is gone too. Dont know if they get paid (probably do), and non-jewish employees dont receive any compensation. This isnt a anti-jewish thing, just curious… ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_of\_Graymatter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/74df32/32.png) [@Baron\_of\_Graymatter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_of_Graymatter)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2002, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/business-practice-question/131370/2 "2002-10-08T15:37:23Z")
Nah, I don’t see anything illegal there, especially in retail. One company I worked for lumped it under “Days of Special Concern.” Jewish employees could take Jewish holidays off, African-Americans could take time off to celebrate Kwanzaa, and rednecks such as myself got the first days of deer season off. Everybody seemed happy with it. ---
**Author:** ![poissongrand69](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/848f3c/32.png) [@poissongrand69](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/poissongrand69)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2002, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/business-practice-question/131370/3 "2002-10-08T15:42:07Z")
So employers can give special consideration to certain religious groups, and not to others?? Say, you asked for Kwanzaa off and you are denied… thats illegal I assume?? ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2002, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/business-practice-question/131370/4 "2002-10-08T18:44:53Z")
Yep, that’s illegal. Here, we just all get 2 personal days to use as we see fit–no explanation needed. Still, if you were to ask for EVERY religion’s holidays off, they might add up to too much … then, trouble. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2002, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/business-practice-question/131370/5 "2002-10-08T18:45:47Z")
The way most companies deal with this is to offer “floating holidays” so that the employee can choose which day(s) to take off. I used to be a manager at a company that did not have Martin Luther King, Jr. day as a holiday but I granted a couple of employees’ requests to take that day off and make up the time (we didn’t have floating holidays but we did allow make-up time for snow days and MLK day). ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2002, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/business-practice-question/131370/6 "2002-10-08T19:38:21Z")
Ah but then if you deny an employee’s request for a reasonable accomodation for time off for a religious observance you buy yourself trouble from the other direction. Aren’t federal civil rights laws fun? ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2002, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/business-practice-question/131370/7 "2002-10-08T23:26:53Z")
Does anyone have any cites? ---
**Author:** ![andy\_fl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@andy\_fl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andy_fl)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2002, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/business-practice-question/131370/8 "2002-10-09T00:56:57Z")
I have been associated with Florida Universities - and here is a cite for student religious holidays - [http://www.fsu.edu/Books/Faculty-Handbook/Ch8/Ch8.8.html](http://www.fsu.edu/Books/Faculty-Handbook/Ch8/Ch8.8.html) The State allows employees to have a holiday (but comes short of calling it a religious holiday) [here](http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=Ch0110/SEC117.HTM&Title=-%3E2000-%3ECh0110-%3ESection%20117)