Religion causing unfair distribution of workload

[tishimself]

Scenario:

2 SALARIED Support Personnel hired to do the same job. One not religous the other shomer Shabbas. So at Sundown Fri to Sundown Sat one is unavailable to provide the on-call support. If there is a problem over the weekend it is most likely to occur in that time window. Therefore the non religous employee will be stuck with that problem throughout the weekend because once engaged its hard to turn over to someone else. Not to mention all the holidays that the religous employee will observe outside of weekend support. There is also no compensation for salaried employees as this is part of the job responsibility to provide on-call support.

While I can appreciate religion and harbor no ill will to the religous employee for observing his beliefs, there is an unfair amount of work for the non religous employee.

There's a bit more to it than this but this is the general idea. It's a tough situation. Any thoughts?

 

[LadySlinger]

Have the non religious employee start to observe certain holidays?

It can be tricky to work around the religion though because if the company doesn't want to discriminate, then to avoid any legal implications they have to allow the worker to observe his faith.

Usually though time off or year-end bonuses can help eleviate this situation. Since there are 52 weeks of the year, divide by 2 and each employee gets 26 weekends they have to do on call.

Unfortunately though most departments can be like that. Look at someone who may be a mother. If the school calls and her child is sick, then she has to leave work and go home, while the other "non-moms" are left at work.

 

[KenCunningham]

That said, there is to me a world of difference between a mother attending to her sick child and the requirements of a religion, which is when all is said and done just a pattern for life, not an instinctive thing.

I don't mind people who aren't what they seem. I just wish they'd make their mind up.

 

[LadySlinger]

But what if the child had a disease of some sort, where the child was often sick? Then the parent would have to leave more frequently.

I'm not saying that both situations are the exact same. But with support and any type of work, you run into situations that seem unfair to one person.

From the religious guy's perspective, he probably finds it unfair that the business completely shuts down to observe Christmas or Easter, or other religious holidays while he may have to take vacation days or use personal time to observe his.

 

[tishimself]

In response to LadySlinger, The office splits the Holidays pretty fairly and more so in favor of his religion since the Parent Company is Israeli. Thats not really an issue. However when it comes to weekends where he is only available on Sunday and most of the problems will occur from Fri to Sat, he pretty much has his weekends free while the other Employee will be swamped with work.

Its really nobody's fault, it just is what it is. And bringing this situation to upper management in a company where that religion is dominant is very touchy.

 

[aarenot]

according to law in the usa the company must be responsive to religious observations. to not do so is considered relgious discrimination, and is actionable by law. the company would put themselves in a position of possible legal action if it does not allow the employee to honor their religious tenants. this includes honoring their sabath, holy days, religious practices.

that being said, the tenants must be valid to their faith, supported as tenants of their fiath by their religion, and they must demonstrate a practice of their religious tanants which they site.

for instance, they can not say that they are unable to work on their holy day for reasons of practicing their religion, and then not do so, and remain valid. if they say they must attend a service, and then do not it invalidates their claim of religious observation. this goes for the unbeliever as well who claims a religious holiday, and then makes no religious observation.

 

[aarenot]

http://www.aclj.org/Issues/Resources/Document.aspx?ID=867.

check this link, good info on subject.

 

[Grenage]

Do they get paid for the Sunday? If so, I'd consider practising their religion, too. /wink


Carlsberg don't run I.T departments, but if they did they'd probably be more fun.

 

[aarenot]

actually upon further investigation, they have to have a firmly held religious belief for it to be valid. it does not have to be supported by any official doctrine of a religion, and they do not have to attend a service on sabbath in order to claim they have a firmly held religious belief against working on the sabbath. the workers religious life, and the fulfillment of their tenants of faith is not considered an evidence of their firmly held belief. in other words, they do not have to appear to practice the religion or belief to qualify.

 

[Dollie]

While it's true that in order to be within the law you have to allow your employees to follow their religious tenets, what about the discrimination against the other employee who does not follow the same religion? Isn't that person being discriminated against as well by being forced to give up all weekend hours because of someone else's religion?

Wouldn't it seem that for a support position the company would want to hire more people that have a higher degree of availability? To lay all weekend support on one person just doesn't seem fair, religion or not. Either that, or the person that's stuck with covering everyone else on the weekend should demand hourly pay. That would partially compensate the inconvenience.

And yes, I work on the Sabbath quite a bit, and sometimes it's not by choice. Not once have I stood up and screamed about religious persecution, however.

 

[aarenot]

the person who has no religious tenets has no obstruction to working on any day. inconvenience, yes, but every day of work is an inconvenience, or we would not get paid. so those with no religious beliefs do not have the same substantiation for it being more than an inconvenience. federaly in the usa, free practice of religion is contitutionaly protected from congressional law. congress does not even have a right to make a law which restricts the practices of religion. they do however have laws forbidding religious discrimination. that pretty much means you just have to deal with it, or move on to another employer. they may have a similiar situation though.

most companies charge a premium for after hours work, or figure it in to the contract for service. they do this to make some extra money for the employees inconvenience, even though the company has no inconvenience or additional cost.

 

[KornGeek]

How would the company deal with the support issue if the person without religious tenets left? This issue should be considered in order to find a way to avoid unfairly burdening that employee. The other option is to avoid it, and deal with the question when the employee gets fed up and leaves. Either way, it needs to be considered.

Also, how would the employee without religious tenets feel if the employee with the religious tenets left? Would handling all of the support be an issue if they were the only employee? Would they want extra compensation and consideration then, or would it simply be a part of the job? The employee should consider these questions and use the answers as guidance for dealing with upper management.

The true issue here isn't an employee's religious beliefs. The true issue is how a company is handling weekend support with only a single employee. After all, when the weekend comes, that is what they have.

 

[chiph]

+1 to KornGeek.

Either find someone else to work part-time on alternate weekends to provide support, or simply don't offer support on those weekends.

Chip H.


____________________________________________________________________
If you want to get the best response to a question, please read FAQ222-2244 first

 

[aarenot]

this is a $legal$ consideration first and foremost. The position of legal liabilty of the company is huge if they do not allow the employee the time off for religious purposes.

This may not be desirable, but the compnay may possibly respond to a request for a change in the work week for an employee to make the other employees Sabbath day a regularly scheduled work day giving them a weekday off in its place.
My request might be to work 4 ten hour days, having three days off per week, one on call, and two off consecutively. In this case, Work Tuesday-Friday, on call Thursday-Saturday. Sunday, and Monday no work, no on call. I would love a three day weekend every week with one of the three days on call.

 

[eyetry]

I would recommend speaking to upper managment and HR. While this is a legal issue it's also a problem the company should seriously review. I'm not suggesting that the religious person work on Sabbath.

Some of the ones listed above are sound. If its a large company, perhaps there are people from other departments that can help out.

What I would do is clearly write down what the situation is. Then define the problems or potential problems. Provided tentative, reasonable solutions that can be reviewed, be open (non-defensive) to to alternatives that might be provided. Be proactive and constructive.

Once you've done that sit on what you have a couple of days. Then review it to make sure your really saying what you want to say.

Setup a meeting with your boss, then HR and cross your fingers.

That said, Companies don't want to lose good, productive employees. Before you go out on a limb though you might want to make sure management thinks the non-religious employee is a valuable one.

 

[aarenot]

Spoke with a friend who has done legal work involving religious discrimination. Turns out that even requesting the employee who has expressed his religious restrictions to work on their stated Holy days, sabbath, etc. can be easily framed as religious discrimination in a court of law. The only legal approach is if the company chooses to prove and document that the accomodation of the religious belief would cause the business to be fiscaly unfeesible in the marketplace, and there is no one else who can do the work. Fairness is not a legal consideration, other than to not discriminate against the religious practice. He said that management employees with the skills to perform the job must even be considered as someone else who can do the work in place of an hourly wage employee. Regardless of if it is their normal duties.
So sounds like, do not even ask the religious person to make concessions. he says the legal liability in these cases is not just compensatory, but punitive damages are always sought and almost always awarded, in order to punish, or make an example of the employer. The employee can simply quit upon the request if they have already made their religious tenets known, then bring suit against you. He said he thought the employee wins in about 85% of cases taken to court, and most are settled out of court in the employees favor to avoid bad press, and no admition of guilt.
Also, he said you can not pay, compensate, or promote the guy without the religious observances more because his religion does not get in the way. According to him, that is the definition of religious discrimination.

I would tread lightly, and do not be the point man, unless it is you that are working the weekends.

 

[NickFerrar]

You mention the non-religious guy will be "swamped with work" Fri-Sat on-call, sounds like you need to sort that out first especially if he isn't paid for on-call.

 

[eyetry]

aarenot, duh!

I work closely with the religious community Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist….. and others. My spouse deals with this from a senior management HR level regularly. One of my closest friends is an attorney specializing in employment law and is of a non-Christian faith. I have a strong management, financial and technical background. We talk about this kind of thing a lot.

It's important to note this particular company sounds like its Islamically owned (was that a word?) and perhaps under Islamic management. There’s potential for a strong legal argument that the non-religious employee is being discriminated against.

Not addressing a business issue is bad business. There are always legal ways of constructively addressing this problem.

Also, keep in mind that I stated, “I'm not suggesting that the religious person work on Sabbath. “ There are many ways this can be looked at to promote a solution that will not create a legal hassle and will actually prevent one. That’s why tishimself needs to include management and HR in addressing it. It’s also why tishimself needs to really think about the issue, document the problems related to the issue and provide potential solutionS for review. It’s also why tishimself needs to determine how critical keeping the non-religious employee happy is to management before sticking his neck out. tishimself should not try addressing this problem directly.

 

[Rhys666]

Surely the religious employee is simply unable to meet the requirements of the role for which they are employed, and unable to meet their contractual obligations, (for whatever reason).

Sorry, but I have no sympathy for anyone who cannot meet obligations they have freely agreed to as part of any contract. If someone is perpetually, consistantly and permanently unable to perform a role in a company for whatever reason then surely the company must be able to move staff positions around in order to meet its business requirements? Being unable to re-arrange its work force in this, (or any similar), situation is just plain silly.

Its got nothing to do with discrimination, but simply with getting employees to perform the roles they are conracted and being remunerated for. Basically the company should never have employed someone in a role which they are unable to perform in the first place as they were an unsuitable candidate.

Rhys
The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense Edsgar Dijkstra

Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

 

[aarenot]

Interesting indeed. However the reality of law is that your opinion while certainly you are entitled to it, is not legally defensable. Disclosure of religious practices, or beliefs is not contractually required by law in the USA. practice of such is also not legally grounds for dismissal, or negative job review, or negative consequences for such. It is also not legal cause for breach of an employment contract, even if it disallows fulfillment of certain aspects of the contract.

While it may not be reasonable to some, it is certainly precedent by law.