Power Supplier Fired Jehovah's Witness For Wanting One Day Off To Attend Religious Convention.
Bangalore
Power Supplier Fired Jehovahs Witness For Wanting One Day Off to Attend Religious Convention
by Bangalore 8 Replies latest jw friends
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EXMS
Now, don't get me wrong, a company should not do that. Regardless if the person is in a hellish cult or not. However, the whole situation could have easily been avoided if she just leaves the WTBS...just sayin'.
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pbrow
Why shouldnt a company do that? If an employee asks off for a day and is denied and then said employee doesnt show up for work that sounds like a perfectly acceptable reason to fire someone. The reason for the day off request is irrelevant. You cant run your business if employees dont show up for work.
I hope they fight it.
pbrow
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designs
The Society for many years encouraged this type of martyrdom under the 'Jehovah will provide' slogan.
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NeonMadman
I had a job where I used to get hassled that way. Frankly, as much as I think it's a bad idea to be a JW and to go to those conventions, I'm on the side of the JW woman on this issue, at least in principle. At one job in particular, I always got hassled when I requested a day off for the convention, yet other guys who wanted a day off to go to the beach or run personal errands had no problem at all. Fortunately, I always (grudgingly) was allowed the day in the end, but I could probably still have made a case for religious discrimination. This woman has the right to believe what she wishes, no matter how wrong it is, and she should be given the same freedom to practice her beliefs that other employees have. If other employees are allowed days off for personal reasons (and I'm sure they are - what company today doesn't make at least some PTO days available?), then she should be too.
What actually crossed my mind when I read this story, though, was that she may have been a problem employee in other ways, and the company just used this issue as an excuse to get rid of her. Probably a bad management decision, if that's what it was, since they are likely to lose the inevitable lawsuit.
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finally awake
If the facts in this case are exactly as presented, then the company has committed religious discrimination and deserves to be punished. However, it is possible that there are other factors that are not being reported. I wonder if the company allows a certain number of days off per year to each employee, and she had already used all her allotment. Or maybe she didn't turn in her request for the day off far enough in advance. I worked in one place where only one person at a time could take a scheduled day off because there weren't enough people to cover the workload if two or more were off at the same time. Therefore, you had to turn in your leave requests as far in advance as possible because it was first come first serve. If two people turned in requests for the same day, the more senoir person got approved. One woman took the week before and the week after Christmas every single year. She had seniority and she turned in her request the first work day of each year. Everyone hated her for that. I don't know what would have happened if an employee had asked for a day off to go to an assembly after someone else had already asked for the same day for non-religious reasons. Given that the assemblies here are usually in June or July and run Friday through Sunday, there would have been a good chance of the assembly overlapping with someone else's vacation. Most people would be super pissed if they were told they had to cancel an already booked vacation to accomodate a day off for an assembly for a coworker.
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Band on the Run
I recall reading legal cases concerning days off for religious reasons. My memory is not clear. It was my understanding that unless the employee is a crucial one and the time off would completely disrupt the business, the employee must be accomodated. Of course, what is best practices and what happens is real life are two different things, esp. in this economy.
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WTWizard
As someone that used to be a witless, I believe that people should be granted such requests within reason. If a person asks for the time off, regardless of reason, and it is reasonably far away at the time the request is given, accomodations should be made. However, if someone waits until within a few days of the a$$embly and then asks for time off, they should not have to accomodate such request. And especially if doing so would generate undue hardship for the business (and a power company needs sufficient help on at any given time).
Another reason to refuse time off is if everyone wants the same day off. You might need a certain number of people on a given shift, and if you have 200 requests for the same day off, that would leave you short staffed. Power companies especially need staff in case of problems (how would you feel if a blackout lasts 8-12 hours because everyone "needed" that time off?). You might be able to accomodate the first 15 or 20 of them, but once you reach that point, further requests would then need to be denied in order to maintain your service. This is why it's so important to turn in valid requests for time off as soon as possible.
Now, it should be fought if the request was denied and then someone made a later request and got it off. If that is in fact the case, it would be a violation of the "first come first served" principle. Except if the later request was something like jury duty or a major emergency, once you reach the limit, requests should be cut off. I have seen the premise posted that requests for time off are requests, not guaranteed. And they are generally given first come first served priority (again, except when you run into emergency situations or jury, military, or witness duty in court).
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rebel8
In the US it's the law employers need to be flexible about time off to tend to religious obligations.
I'd be interested if she was willing to attend a different date and if her employer would have accepted that. Her religious need would have been met equally.