Apparently they can’t just make exceptions because the union says all people must be treated the same whether they want to or not. No one can get a longer break.

Thanks for the link. I do have to disagree about the slippery slope. Slippery slope would be implying falsely that one thing would eventually lead to another. Having first responders take a prayer break from a prolonged rescue is indeed a valid possibility.

I’m glad Swift is making the reasonable accommodations necessary. My only concern is it seems this accommodation will affect all employees, whether the person is of the Muslim faith or not. An example would be a Jewish employee who can’t eat pork and wants management to alter the menu for everyone. Why can’t Swift just accommodate just the employees to whom the issue concerns?

What an unfortunate work environment. A little communication up front would have saved a job and the need to re-hire but it seems from the story the management won’t accommodate and by conscience the workers can only budge so much. The management and the workers are both walls wanting to keep their own constraints and make the other bow. As a result the production line bottlenecks.

One was singled out as an example to intimidate the other 120 workers. This doesn’t have to be as volatile. While there may be evangelist among the faithful, they aren’t imposing a request for all workers and management to spend a few minutes with god themselves. Asking for accommodation

A couple ten minute breaks over a workday are not exactly radically shocking, is it? It’s not a random time. Prayer schedules are readily available and can be shared with management as a predictable break time. True people generally take shifts to not leave a skeleton crew. Practice may have to adapt somewhat for all these people to work together.

Obviously tensions are running high if someone grabs a person while they talk with god. That seems out of line to me but the sides are at risk of polarizing further until an adequate communicator intercedes so both sides can hear each other.

Thanks for bringing in professional insight into this topic. From what I know of the topic, it seems the offer to change work schedules is accommodation enough and the employee should have received permission beforehand.

Yup. Absolutely.

It’s called THE LAW not just here in California, but also in the United States. Here in Ca., the right to be free from discrimination or harassment in the workplace because of one’s religion is guaranteed under the Fair Employment and Housing Act. The federal law is Title VII.

Employees are entitled to a reasonable accommodation of the terms, conditions and privileges of their employment in order for them to exercise their right to religious belief and practices. So, for instance, a Seventh-Day Adventist who worships beginning at sundown on Friday might be excused from work early that day to get home before the sun sets. A Christian might come to work on Sunday after his/her regularly scheduled morning worship service. Employees are given religious holy days, such as Yom Kippur, for example, off altogether.

The legal standard is a de minimis cost to the employer so it is a fact-based inquiry. In this case, Swift will have to show that it would incur more than a de minimis cost to allow its Muslim workers to stop and pray.

However, changing an employee’s shift might well constitute a reasonable accommodation. An employee is entitled to a reasonable, not the ideal, accommodation. And if that means they lose things like the preferable shift, shift differential pay, overtime, etc., that may be the consequence of being accommodated.

An employee must request the accommodation. So he/she cannot just modify his/her own work schedule or assignment without notifying the employer of the need for accommodation. The employer and employee are legally required to engage in a good faith, timely interactive process to derive an appropriate accommodation. That’s a fancy term for a conversation, dialogue. They must communication and the obligation is mutual.

Yes, I do know a great deal about this subject since I am a civil rights attorney.