Day of Worship - Overtime
qsausagelm
34 Posts
As a manufacturing company, we, on occasion, have to work on Sundays in order to meet customer orders. We have an employee that says that she will not work on Sundays because she is a Christian. I explained to her that she can still attend church on Sunday and then come in to work. She says that she attends church twice that day for a total of six hours and there would not be enough time to come in to work.
If it was just one employee, accommodation would be easy, but what if all or many of her co-workers take the same position? Help!!
If it was just one employee, accommodation would be easy, but what if all or many of her co-workers take the same position? Help!!
Comments
Your business need for the mandetory overtime can override her desire to attend church twice on Sunday. At the point you are going to force her to come to work on Sunday, I would advise you to get some legal advise about the cases where the courts in your district have permitted companies to overide religious accomodations.
If you have any questions about my answer, do not hesitate to call me at 615-371-8200.
Margaret Morford
If a sizable percentage of your employees want to go to church on Sundays, you might want to consider creative scheduling. For example, consider having a full or partial crew work an extra four hours on Friday and Saturday instead of eight hours on Sunday. Or have an eight-hour shift on Sunday that begins at 1:00. Or, as Margaret Morford suggested, spread out the overtime over the workweek.
I realize, however, that these ideas might not be practical at your company.
I will be praying for you!
Sorry! Bad joke. But you got to keep your sense of humor when you are in HR.
Paul
Law:
Title VII prohibits discrimination based on religion. Religion includes not only religious beliefs which are associated with traditional religions, but religious "observances and practices" as well. A particular belief, observance, or practice falls within this definition if it is sincerely held and occupies in the life of its possessor a place parallel to that filled by the GOD of those religions admittedly qualifying for the exemption.
The above does not express nor imply that casual requests to attend special functions or programs will be allowed. What this means is that we have a responsibility to reasonably accommodate religious requests. However, accommodations that result in "undue hardship" on the business are not required under law. As a result, our procedure will be to get it in writing, then we will decide. Be sure that when you or your support team respond to such requests they are aware of our procedure.
I hope this helps. Good luck!
Douglas B. Neu
Editor, Rhode Island Employment Law Letter
Powers, Kinder & Keeney, Inc.
[email]dneu@pkklaw.com[/email]
This is a common problem in the hospital environment. Most of the time if an employee does not wish to work on Sunday, then they would have to agree to work on Saturday if needed. Again, you usually do not have problems getting volunteers to work if it involves extra pay.