From: Esther Escobar - Spendbig Corporate HR Department
CC: Galen Bland
Date: January 4, 2010
Re: Dominic Sellick Complaint
Rosa,
Dominic Sellick is one of the maintenance mechanics at Spendbig. The company informed Dominic at the time of employment that it was a company policy that all employees should be available for work seven days a week 24 hours per day and was obligated to provide continual support to the plant at Spendbig. Spendbig would schedule its employees for only five days of work each week, eight hours per day. Dominic at the time of employment did not belong to any church and hence was under no prohibition, religious or otherwise, from working any day in the week. Dominic has recently become a Seventh Day Adventist. In the past, he had been working on a rotating shift with the other three mechanics and was willing to work at least one weekend per month. Dominic has informed his manager; he would no longer be able to work on Saturdays and wants management to accommodate his religious needs. Supervisor explained that it would be difficult to promise that Dominic would never be called on to work on a Saturday, but that he would do what he could.
The maintenance mechanics keep the physical plant going to support the 24-7 operations. Someone has to have work on Saturdays, even though all employees understandably preferred Saturday off. Dominic recognized that his religion did not preclude him from working on Saturdays in the event of a special emergency.
Relevant Case Law
“Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, and religion” (EEOC, 2009 pp.1). Generally, this means that an employer may not treat an employee in one of the protected groups any less favorably than an employee outside the protected group.
But the law also provides that an employer must "reasonably accommodate" the religious beliefs of its employees. This means that we must allow employees to exercise their religious beliefs at work so long as it does not impose an "undue hardship" on the company or adversely impact the employee's coworkers. In some cases, requires treating someone more favorably than others because of his or her religious beliefs.
The term “religion” includes all aspects of religious observance and practice, in addition to belief, unless an employer demonstrates that he cannot “reasonably accommodate” to an employee's or perspective employee's religious observance or practice without undue hardship on the conduct of the employer's business 42 U.S.C. 2000e (j).
The Commission believes that the duty not to discriminate on religious grounds, required by section 703(a) (1) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, includes an obligation on the part by the employer to make reasonable accommodations to the religious needs of employees and prospective employees where such accommodations can be made without undue hardship on the conduct of the employer's business. Such undue hardship, for example, may exist in which another employee of substantially similar qualifications during the period of absence of the Sabbath observer cannot perform the employee’s needed work. Because of the particularly sensitive nature of discharging or refusing to hire an employee or applicant because of his religious beliefs, the employer has the burden of proving that an undue hardship renders the required accommodations to the religious needs of the employee unreasonable.
Recommended Course of Action
“Under federal and most states' laws, employers cannot ignore the religious needs of employees but must work with employees to try to accommodate them. Employers are
