Religion in the Workplace
A Florida woman was fired this week for eating bacon in her employer's cafeteria. The employer is Muslim and forbids pork on its premises. She's suing under the theory that employers must accomodate religious practices in the workplace. Interesting issue, isn't it? I'm going to weigh in on the side of the employer in this case. People can certainly choose where they work, and if you don't like a no-pork rule, perhaps you should move on. If I decide to open my own business, I would like to have some control over my working conditions. I may not want to sound an announcement that it is time for Muslim's to pray. I may not want cigarette smoke. I may insist that employees refrain from swearing.
I don't see how one can square the ideas that no religion is allowed in (public) school, but employer's must accomodate religion in the (private) workplace. Is it a protected right or is it not? If it is a protected right, the practice of religion should be allowed in public places, including school. But private employers are not state actors, so they should not have a duty to accomodate. Not to mention that the employee in question above was not eating bacon as a religious practice.
A Florida woman was fired this week for eating bacon in her employer's cafeteria. The employer is Muslim and forbids pork on its premises. She's suing under the theory that employers must accomodate religious practices in the workplace. Interesting issue, isn't it? I'm going to weigh in on the side of the employer in this case. People can certainly choose where they work, and if you don't like a no-pork rule, perhaps you should move on. If I decide to open my own business, I would like to have some control over my working conditions. I may not want to sound an announcement that it is time for Muslim's to pray. I may not want cigarette smoke. I may insist that employees refrain from swearing.
I don't see how one can square the ideas that no religion is allowed in (public) school, but employer's must accomodate religion in the (private) workplace. Is it a protected right or is it not? If it is a protected right, the practice of religion should be allowed in public places, including school. But private employers are not state actors, so they should not have a duty to accomodate. Not to mention that the employee in question above was not eating bacon as a religious practice.
posted by Jan at 10:13 AM
1 Comments:
People are too touchy these days.
I used to work for The Learning Company down in Tennessee, I tested childrens software, not a bad gig to get paid to find bug in programs, anyway.... the boss was a guy named Amin, he was from Jordan, the crew used to go to Buddy's BBQ and get carry out pork sandwiches, take it back to work and eat it in front of him, he would just shake his head and tell us we would all die and go to hell for eating it. Not the most PC thing to do I guess looking back at it. He would get back at us by remapping our keyboards to arabic letters.There was never anything serious done that would make anyone mad or anything, he would tell us stories about how things are in Jordan, sounds like an interesting place to me, a whole different way of life there, I dont think I would want to live there though.
That was a fun job, the employees from Russia were a blast, they used to put "undocumented features" in the programs for us to find. The point is there were people there from several different countries and religions and we all got along fine. I guess some people just want to fight and go looking for them. If the bacon eater wants it and the boss says not in my cafeteria then she can go eat in it in her car. That way everyone gets what they want. Just my two cents worth.
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