Days Off?

[andrewducker]

Not sure how I feel about this.  A Christian lost his court case where he claims he was sacked for refusing to work Sundays.  His employers moved to a 7-days shift system and required people to work every day of the week (I assume week on/week off).

On the one hand, if they're discriminating equally against Christians, Muslims, Jews, etc. then it's hard to say that they're practising religious discrimination.  And it's not like I actually agree that there's any _rational_ reason for not working on a Sunday.

I suspect I'm feeling the left-over twinge from when working on a Sunday used to be extremely rare.  If, after all, a sect sprang up that forbade working on Wednesdays I wouldn't expect employers to automatically give people the Wednesday off.  And it's not like we're actually a Christian country any more - church attendance is down to 7.5%.

Dammit, it's my Englishness coming to the fore.  Must...suppress....

Comments

[douglasbryant.livejournal.com]

It still shoes a lack of respect and understanding of a persons beliefs.

Although, I don't remember reading in the bible that you go to hell for working on sundays...

And I love churches, they make great night clubs.

[pisica.livejournal.com]

During the 2000 presidential campaign, everyone was hysterical that Lieberman wouldn't be able to work on Saturday since he was (*gasp*) a Jew, yet no one seems to be worried about what Bush would do if the next terrorist attack came on a Sunday. But that's my own personal issue. :)

[communicator.livejournal.com]

Perhaps there is some sort of class-action that they could take covering all the Abrahamic religions, which all need a set day a week off, even though the day is different for each one. I'm not sympathetic to any of those religions, but it is a tradition that's been going, like, two thousand years, so I say make an effort to accomodate it. Like with Sikh headdress. Live and let live.

Sunday

[wordofblake.livejournal.com]

I know I am supposed to refrain from servile work on a Sunday. I guess if my employer could guarantee the work would be non-servile

Then again, Christian country or not, you are supposed to be allowed express your religion. Whether that means wearing a turban or not working on holy days or after sunset on a Friday.

Employers should never come before people, but this shows that they always do, and I think that's at least as worrying as the religious aspect of this ruling.

[adders.livejournal.com]

Well, yes they are practicing descrimination - they're descriminating against the guy for having a religious belief.

They're not discriminating between religions, but between people with religious beliefs and those without.

That said, as a Christian who had strong views about the Sabbath, he probably should have been looking for another job anyway...

[missedith01.livejournal.com]

The law does not allow discrimination on grounds of any religion or belief. Failure to allow religious observance is potentially discriminatory, but not if it's justified for business reasons. Looks like the right decision to me.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Although I'm against that level of employer power. I like the complete lack of religious discrimination. A better response would be full flextime with scheduling preferences based on seniority or performance. However, after hearing all the fundys over hear yammer about all of their nonsense, having a policy that treats Christians, Jews, Pagans, and Buddhists equally in terms of days off is refreshing and positive, albeit by becoming universally oppressive.

[xquiq.livejournal.com]

It's a difficult one. On the one hand, the man had worked there for a long period of time and the request isn't a particularly unusual one in a Christian country. At a local level, it seems odd that they couldn't accomodate his request.

On the other hand, religious restrictions can be quite wide-ranging - not to mention open to interpretation - and I would find it extremely unfair if making allowances for these restrictions was codified into law, to the extent that it impacted on others of a different or no religion.

One possible extrapolation would be public holidays. Many of these are Christian, meaning that a Christian can usually be guaranteed Christmas off work, whereas a Jew cannot be guaranteed his religious holidays. Whilst most employers would be understanding, I can't see any way that a 'right' to particular holidays would be workable.

I must admit to a small prejudice on this type of issue. Intellectually, I understand the need to provide flexibility to both the potential workforce and its productivity. Despite this, as a childless athiest, it still grates on me a little when some people milk it for all its worth and display a sense of entitlement to a degree of flexibility I'm not permitted. In many organisations, particularly smaller ones, the young & single or older with grown-up kids are expected to accomodate those with families. This is why I'm very wary of yet more legislation providing new rights to a specific group - most of the time, some other group will lose out.

[tanngrisnir.livejournal.com]

His employers moved to a 7-days shift system and required people to work every day of the week (I assume week on/week off).

That's not how I understood it; I thought it was talking about a 7-day shift system such that everyone would get a couple of days off a week, just not necessarily at the weekend. BICBW, of course.

It sounds as though the company needed to operate seven days a week for commercial reasons. From what I recall of recent employment legislation (can't find the links at the moment), companies are supposed to, as far as possible, take account of legitimate religious needs of their employees, but it's not an absolute thing and as far as I recall it's accepted that smaller companies may not have the flexibility to give employees days off they might wish for religious reasons.

[imaget.livejournal.com]

Don't feel bad about your Englishness, it's one of the things I like best about you.

[opusfluke.livejournal.com]

Huh, I'd like to see the test case for days off on other grounds. "WEll, I demand May Day off as I am a Communist and on that day I show solidarity". Besides you never hear People of the Book pointing out that Deuteronomy says credit cards are ungodly and so airlines etc should not demand tickets being bought by credit card.