Some religious people claim that serving or sharing space with LGBT people infringes their rights. But this post is not about them. It's about cases of people with religious values who face discrimination in the
workplace—and these cases are interesting because employers are not trying to pick on
people with religious values.
Take the October 2015 case, where the EEOC sued a trucking
company that fired two Muslim drivers who cited religious values for refusing
to drive loads with alcohol. They won a $240,000 judgment on the theory that
the employer could have made a minimal accommodation by assigning those loads to
anyone else.
More recently: In
March, an EEOC complaint was filed for 130 former Cargill Meat Solutions Corp. workers in Colorado. These Somali Muslims allege that their employer
revoked a policy that permitted daily prayer. The case is pending.
And yesterday, the EEOC filed a lawsuit claiming a North
Carolina hospital forced workers with religious objections to get flu shots and
fired the ones who refused. The hospital fired a Christian intake clinician and
a Muslim psychiatric technician.
The hospital appears to be in a poor posture because it
allowed religious exemptions for flu shots. In these case, the workers applied
after the deadline and the hospital was unwilling to grant an extension. The employer responds: “Mission Health plans to vigorously
defend its flu policy, firm in our belief that our actions were consistent with
best clinical practices.”
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