Posted on 11/16/2006 2:19:43 PM PST by FLOutdoorsman
SAVANNAH, Mo. – Three years after she was fired for refusing to work on Sundays, Connie Rehm has won back her job on the staff of this small town's public library, and her employers have received a costly education in employment rights law.
No less a legal team than the same Florida attorneys who represented the parents of Terri Schiavo – the brain-damaged woman at the center of last year's right-to-die case – took up Rehm's cause, suing Rolling Hills Consolidated Library on a claim of religious discrimination.
A federal jury found in her favor after a three-day trial in May, and last month she was reinstated on a judge's order to the staff assistant job she had held for 12 years before her religious practice and the library's adoption of Sunday hours collided in 2003.
To Rehm, a 54-year-old former junior high school math teacher who still attends the Lutheran church where she and her husband were married 34 years ago, the outcome of her case is a victory for any employee whose conviction against laboring on the Sabbath is tested by workplace demands.
“A middle American, mild-mannered, small-town library person – I attribute to the Lord a great sense of humor for having picked me for this test,” Rehm mused in an interview at her home in rural Savannah, a northwest Missouri town of 4,900.
Though claims of religious discrimination are growing in number, they were only a tiny segment – just 3.1 percent – of the slightly more than 75,000 complaints filed last year with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The agency is a sort of legal gatekeeper, weeding out baseless claims and attempting to resolve those that seem to present genuine violations of the Civil Rights Act.
Rarer still are religious discrimination cases that wind up in a courtroom. When, as in Rehm's case, the EEOC determines that a violation did occur, both sides typically prefer settlement to arguing their positions before an unpredictable jury.
“As a plaintiff in a trial, you run the risk of no recovery. As a defendant, you run the risk of being found liable and having to pay damages,” said Rehm's attorney, David C. Gibbs III of the Florida-based Gibbs Law Firm. The firm takes cases like Rehm's for the Christian Law Association.
Religious discrimination may be a specialized area only because such cases are uncommon, and not often won. And it's unlikely to remain a small area of the law much longer, said St. Louis attorney Jim Paul, chairman of The Missouri Bar's Labor and Employment Law Committee.
“Religious discrimination claims are definitely a new hot topic,” Paul said. “A lot of companies and organizations are now operating longer hours and more days a week, so inevitably you're crossing paths with other parts of people's lives, including religious practices and observances.”
The jury awarded Rehm $53,712 in damages, representing her lost library wages minus what she earned at other jobs after being fired. But the real prize was recovering the job she considers “a gift from God” because it allows her to serve her community.
“One of the unique elements of this case is that Connie wasn't interested in money, she wanted her job back. That's an uncommon situation,” Gibbs said.
The library's position in settlement negotiations was “to deal with it as a financial matter,” essentially paying to make Rehm and her claim go away, he said.
Rehm wasn't interested. She saw no reason for abandoning either her beloved second career or – as federal law phrases it – her “sincerely held religious belief” in abstaining from work on Sundays.
“What price is my religious freedom? What is it worth?” Rehm said. “It's not a matter of displaying the Ten Commandments. It's being able to live the Ten Commandments, and that's what my employer was asking me not to do.”
Damages might be just part of the cost to the library district. The judge also could order it to pay Rehm's legal fees – and Gibbs' firm is seeking nearly $300,000 for their work.
Do I personally think they should work around her schedule? Of course. Do I think it should be illegal to choose to find an employee who can work the hours they want? No.
"What does that have to do with not being able to work on Tuesday?"
Hypothetically, if you have a demonstrable need to worship on Tuesday, then it applies.
You cannot dictate to a company the days and hours you will work. No law covers that, yet.
Ok, I give. Reading comprehension isn't your strong point. I just posted the law that covers it.
And in essence, yes you can dictate that particular desire. The law backs you.
That law covers no such thing.
Quote
Companies do, however, have some flexibility in how they accommodate employees. An employer is required to make reasonable accommodations -- not to accept whatever accommodation the employee suggests, nor to spare the employee all expenses in making the accommodation. For example, your employer might give you the day off for a religious observance, but do so without pay. Or, if changing an employee's schedule to accommodate a religious belief would wreak havoc on a seniority system and cause severe morale problems among other employees, the employer might not have to agree to it.
unquote
There's a reason most city/county libraries across the country are closed on Sundays.
When I was a child, the only businesses open on Sunday were drug stores (and not usually all day) and hospitals. A few gas stations might be open. But that was all. Then they relaxed the Blue Laws, and malls started opening from noon to 6:00pm or so.
And your point is? Or are we back to the Tuesday thing again?
Did you expect to be paid for that day? No one I know of including myself ever expected to get paid for having Sunday off.
In New York City, in the time of the Sunday Blue Law, the Jews were allowed to open their stores on Sunday but only if they were closed on Saturday. It was a fair exchange.
You worked a four day week then?
'Damages might be just part of the cost to the library district. The judge also could order it to pay Rehm's legal fees – and Gibbs' firm is seeking nearly $300,000 for their work.'
+* +* +*
And if the library district doesn't have to pay the $300,000 in legal fees, who will? Surely not Mrs. Rehm.
I disagree with this ruling. An employer should have no requirement to consider a persons religion in business decisions, & it would be illegal. If the woman doesn't want to work on Sunday, find another job. Now the library's other employees will have to work more often on Sunday, to cover for the woman.
Or perhaps the library should close on Sunday; & Friday & Saturday also to accommodate muslims & Jews. With enough diversity in the library staff, the library will close for good - 7 days a week.
And what if this were a hospital or police station. Would they be forced to close on Sunday to accommodate a pious community?
If this woman had said her beliefs prohibit her working on even numbered days, must her employer keep her on staff? Suppose she is undecided about whether to be a muslim, Jew, or Christian & decides to honor all three holy days while she makes her decision? Prayer rugs & prayer rooms & goat sacrifices in the conference room can't be far behind. This is all ludicrous!
This ruling also opens up another problem. If working on Sunday is taboo, how about Easter or Christmas or the MONTH of Ramadan or the umpteen other religious holidays of the hundreds of religions & sects. How could a large employer schedule his work force, given that he can't ask about an employee's religion? How could a 24/7 manufacturer function if a large group of employees wont work on certain days?
Finally, if any day is holy to a religion, wouldn't it be disrespectful & discriminatory for ANY commerce to take place on that day, so all business must remain closed out of respect & consideration?
This woman is forcing her religious beliefs on the library, & that is wrong.
This decision is opening a door to special treatment for anyone who only has to say he/she is religious.
All Muslims can demand Fridays off.
All Jews can demand Saturdays off.
All Christians can demand Sundays off.
I wonder which days Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists and Wiccans practice.
Now that's a scary thought!
No in many cases, I worked a 6 day week.
So when you applied for a job with a schedule of Thursday through Monday you told your employer that you'd take it but you wouldn't work Sundays?
The last job I held the schedule started on Thursday and ran through Wednesday. Sundays were many times the only day off I had. I took the job with the understanding of having Sunday off because of church obligations, chiefly because I am minister's wife.
Did you demand Sunday off under the law? Or, was it a job where it didn't matter?
I am trying to get to the bottom of your understanding of the law. Do you think you are entitled to Sundays off no matter who you work for? Do you think the law provides for that?
"Do you think you are entitled to Sundays off no matter who you work for? Do you think the law provides for that?"
Do I think I'm entitled, no more than the next person. The law provides protection for my desire to fullfill my religious beliefs and under that law, if I request accomodation for my beliefs, they are required to oblige me.
As for any employer I work for, it would be a consideration on my part as to who I worked for. I realize that's not an option for everyone.
I didn't demand at my last job, I requested. The manager and I discussed it quite lengthily and I never once brought up the law.
they are not "required" to accommodate you.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.