May 1: Must You Give Sunday Off for "Church TV" Reasons?
If employees ask for Sunday off work for religious reasons, must they attend services on that day? A new court ruling clarifies that the answer is no. And you could face a religious discrimination lawsuit even if you try to accommodate employees by allowing them to find their own replacement for Sunday shifts ...
Case In Point: Kimberly Bloom, a cashier at an Aldi grocery store in Pennsylvania, asked for Sundays off work for religious reasons. Aldi’s shift rotation system required Bloom to work only one Sunday every two months. It also provided a voluntary shift-swap system so employees could trade days with co-workers who could work Sundays.
Bloom told her boss that her religious convictions as a Christian prohibited her from working Sundays or from asking her co-workers to work in her place. The company offered to let her come in later so she could attend church services, but she said she didn’t go to church. Instead, she read the Bible, watched TV services at home and spent time with family.
When Bloom failed to show up to work on two Sundays, the store fired her. She filed a Title VII religious discrimination claim with the EEOC, which backed her lawsuit. On its web site, the EEOC says employers must “reasonably accommodate employees’ sincerely held religious practices unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on the employer.”
In court, Aldi lawyers argued that the company’s voluntary shift rotation policy was a “reasonable accommodation.” And it said that working on Sundays was an “essential job function” for cashiers and that if Bloom were exempt, it would cause undue hardship.
The grocery store also claimed that since Bloom didn’t go to church, her desire not to work the Sunday shifts was personal, not religious. (EEOC v. Aldi Inc., 3/28/08).
How did this case end…and what lessons can be learned?
The court sided with Bloom, saying that, “Church attendance or membership in a particular sect is not necessary to assert a Title VII claim.”
The court also ruled that the company’s shift-swapping policy was not a reasonable accommodation in this case because, “Bloom, a Protestant, has established that she sincerely believes that it is a sin to work on the Sabbath or to ‘support’ another person working on Sundays. Hence, her decision not to attend church on the Sabbath is immaterial as to whether her beliefs qualify as religious for purposes of Title VII.”
3 Lessons Learned … Without Going To Court
1. Train managers on EEO laws or open yourself punitive damages. The court ruled that Bloom can seek punitive damages due to Aldi’s lack of management training regarding religious bias. Such a training failure could support a finding the company acted with “reckless disregard” of the employee’s federal rights.2. Your policy is not automatically a resonable accommodation. The court said that rather than invoking a pre-existing policy, employers must respond with a good-faith effort to accommodate the person’s religious need, “as opposed to merely relying on a system or policy." Talk to the employee. Even more importantly, listen to the employee.
3. Religion is protected. Argue all you want, but here is a great example of courts supporting employees who seek reasonable accommodations for religious reasons—even if those reasons don’t conform to traditional notions of religion. Employers who fail to review such requests on a case-by-case basis will need more than a prayer for relief.
#1 - Charlotte Bush 2008-05-01 16:47 - (Reply)
Sundays have been mandated overtime days, and the complaintant has advised that they attend church on Sunday, and would like to be excluded from OT on Sunday, but is willing to work any other mandated hours. Should the company comply. There are several employees that have advised of the same. We cannot accomodate 1/2 of our workforce that have put in this request.
#2 - lili 2008-05-01 16:53 - (Reply)
Interesting, so why not close everything down on Sundays, and stop production of all foods man made, and live according to the ways of the bible. If your conviction is according to your christian way, then practice what being christ like is; don’t work for man, fish for your food, grow your own foods, cook on open fires, not gas or electric, use candle light and live in modest, furnished homes, walk or ride a donkey, not drive a car or ride on a bus or taxi. God knows our hearts and he knows our needs and he is a very forgiving God. If we are blessed to find a job that supports our family, he will forgive us for that one Sunday every 2 months that we need to work. There seems to be many man made rules in religion today. Will the courts side with the killing of people because of their religion? The highest supreme court of this nation made a ruling to take religion and prayer out of the schools. It surely seems that the devil is in many levels.
#3 - Kathy Ehst said:
2008-05-01 18:01 - (Reply)
I remember living in my home state of Pennsylvania as a child when the “Blue Laws” were in effect and absolutely nothing but a few restaurants were open on Sundays. Perhaps if we returned to that mandated day of rest, we would all be more productive and better off in the long run. Now we worship the almighty dollar - a cruel taskmaster. The rule of one day of rest out of seven was given for our own good.
#3.1 - Angela 2008-05-08 17:19 - (Reply)
Agreed. North Dakota actually still has a state law prohibiting retailers from opening before noon on Sundays.
#4 - Bonnie Smith 2008-05-02 08:00 - (Reply)
I wondered if the employee was hired before the shift swap Sunday rotation policy went into effect? If Sunday work was a job requirement from the begining did the employee agree to it when hired and then change her feelings about it later?
#4.1 - Pamela Robbins 2008-05-02 09:21 - (Reply)
My thoughts exactly. Was working one Sunday every other month mentioned when she was hired and if it was did she mention her religious convictions then and/or why didn’t the hiring manager address this issue from the get go? The problem may be the hiring process.
#5 - Pam 2008-05-02 11:46 - (Reply)
I would suggest that the employee only be scheduled for 32 hrs the week she is to work on a Sunday. Then she could determine if it was worth it or not. Also my other question would be did she stay home all day Sunday ~ not do any driving, shopping or dining out? For any of those activities would be making others work on the Sabbath.
#6 - Sarah 2008-05-06 08:36 - (Reply)
The complaintant mentioned that she read the Bible and “watched TV services” but cosidered it a sin to ask a fellow co-worker to trade shifts with her. Does she not realize the sheer number of people she is asking to work by simply watching the TV services? The service itself may not be live but the television station that shows the program is not automatic. The electricity powering the station does not stop running on Sunday. There are people working on a Sunday and in a sense, the complaintant by watching the TV Service is asking those people to work “for her” on a Sunday. Wouldn’t this be considered a sin in her religion?
#7 - RM 2008-05-22 19:09 - (Reply)
I think the religious feild has gotten out of hand. Obviousely we can’t go back to living in Christ’s time. The consideration that should have been taken was her notion of the Sabath. Jesus never said the Sabath HAD to be Sunday. It just notes a day of rest, for as stated above, it makes a healthy us to take a day of rest which is what God did. She could tape a Sunday show and worship any day of the week. We would not be practical to revert to donkey’s and water wells nor close the world down and stop functioning on Sundays. The courts should have explored the pre-employement process to make sure she understood the terms of the position and then the terms of having a day to worship, no matter what day that was. It’s obvious we all worship in different ways and the system is trying to determine when or if we can with these kinds of decisions. Common sense has to play somewhere in life beliefs, practices and family needs. God is aware of providing for our families and only asks to spend a little time with us daily for fellowship.
