Sounds like someone’s taken a page out of the Lionel Hutz playbook. Patrice Williams is a Seventh-Day Adventist. Seventh-Day Adventists believe that the Sabbath runs from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Because of her sincerely-held religious beliefs, Ms. Williams requested that her employer not require her to work during the…
This week, I am on vacation. The Supreme Court didn’t get my memo. Fine. But, I’m not putting down my beer to write this post. So, you get a one-handed rundown of the two employment-law decisions the court issued yesterday. Pardon my typos after the jump… * * * A…
Bad Van Halen pun aside, let’s play some Skynyrd. Even Waldo agrees. So, there was this woman in Louisiana who took a teaching position at an elementary school. You know the kind; one that operates on weekdays. And, around her start date, she asked the administration for Tuesdays off to…
Robert Mariotti was the vice-president and secretary of the company his father founded. Not only was he a corporate officer, but Mariotti also served as a member of the board of directors, and was a shareholder who could only be fired for cause. In 1995, Mariotti had a spiritual awakening,…
An employer must accommodate the sincerely-held religious beliefs of its employees unless the employer demonstrates that doing so would cause undue hardship for the business. Undue hardship?!? What the heck is that? And how can you make sure that your managers are prepared to address — let alone spot —…
“Well, blow me down. Wimpy inspires a UK fast food chain, and all I get is this crappy can. Why I oughta…“ In anticipation of the current flu season, you decided to mandate that all employees get immunized. The problem is that one of your employees, a vegan, who won’t…
Yep, someone — represented by a licensed, practicing attorney — brought this lawsuit. ***Shakes head // Smiles // Kisses statuette of Blogga-Blogga, the goddess of HR blogging fodder. Love you, boo.*** Bagel party — whoop! whoop! — after the jump… * * * Mo bagels, mo problems. Let’s take you…
They can’t all begin with a priest, minister and a rabbi walking into a bar. Then again, it’s “Religious Accommodation Tuesday” here at The Employer Handbook. So, after the jump, we’ll discuss the test to determine whether an employee may lawfully don religious items at work and find out whether the…
I’m a firm believer that discussing religion (or politics) at work is a recipe for disaster. On this blog; however, if it’s employment-related, then that’s how we roll… And, after the jump, we roll into Oklahoma and discuss whether it’s ok for a lighting company to require that it’s employees…
Yesterday, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued updated Enforcement Guidance on employer use of arrest and conviction records in employment decisions under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (Title VII is the federal statute that prohibits discrimination in the workplace based on race, color, religion,…