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Post by tristacarrington on Sept 25, 2012 22:01:47 GMT -5
According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, an employer is not discriminating an employee, thereby breaking the law, if by accommodating to his/her religious beliefs and practices the employer is caused undue hardship. "An accommodation may cause undue hardship if it is costly, compromises workplace safety, decreases workplace efficiency, infringes on the rights of other employees, or requires other employees to do more than their share of potentially hazardous or burdensome work."(EEOC) In this case, I would argue that due to a low number of workers that I currently have working in my store, by accommodating to the religious practices and beliefs of the two workers, I am forcing the remaining workforce to do more than their share of irksome work and sharply decreasing my workplace efficiency. I would, ergo, proceed to contest said employees' Unemployment Compensation claim. If the employees refused to work on Sunday due to personal recreation, the same action should be taken as with the case of exercising religious practices. The difference in this case, is that, given my company is in Tennessee which is an "Employment At-Will" state, as an employer, I am able to "fire, suspend, or discipline the employees for any reason, good or bad."(TN.GOV) Citations: 1) www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/religion.cfm2) www.tn.gov/labor-wfd/faq_laws.shtml#employmentatwillExcellent point. However, the EEOC only applies to businesses which have 15 or more full time employees, so if the store is not a national chain but rather a locally owned shop with so few employees (thus your reason for firing the two who refused to cooperate), would the employer be justified in arguing with EEOC regulations?
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Post by jcox0821 on Sept 25, 2012 22:10:56 GMT -5
Due to the first amendment, there is no way you contest their claim. Since the company was originally not open on Sundays, if an employee was to contest the right to work they would have to ultimate right to not have to work due to their right of freedom of religion. However if their reason was solely to be off work to just play golf then their claim would be invalid.
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Post by tristacarrington on Sept 25, 2012 22:11:04 GMT -5
Based on the First Amendment, the employer does not have much of a choice in complying with the former employees’ unemployment claims. The First Amendment declares one must either comply with their religious beliefs or pay for the unemployment compensation. However, if the state is one of the 34 “right-to-work” states, as Tennessee is, the employer could claim any of a myriad of reasons for firing the employees and it would be acceptable under law…
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Post by erking on Sept 25, 2012 22:47:03 GMT -5
The First Amendment of the U.S. clearly serves and protects against U.S. citizens' freedom of speech. As the employer, morally, I would not have the right to contest against their claim. Initially, the store was closed on Sundays. I would be unconstitutional to terminate an employee based on their practice of religious beliefs. There are also alot of other factors to consider. Is this a chain, or is it a locally owned business? How many employees are on the roster? How many shifts are available, and are the hours evenly spread out, or are the hours fairly flexible among the employees and so forth. The employer coyuld easily hire some more employees that will work on Sundays. As far as the employee that has the desire to play golf instead of working goes, they clearly don't value their job. That's legitimate grounds for termination.
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Post by chekariwilliamson on Sept 25, 2012 23:15:16 GMT -5
No, I shouldn't contest their claim, that would only cause more unwanted and costly problems for me. The First Amendment states that Congress shall make no law "respecting an establishment of religion" or "prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
Now, if those same employees refused to work on Sunday because of their desire to play golf on that day the results would be the same. Simply because the constitution requires that the owner of the business either allow the person to have Sunday off or allow the state to pay unemployment compensation and increase the the business's taxes.
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Post by chekariwilliamson on Sept 25, 2012 23:22:02 GMT -5
According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, an employer is not discriminating an employee, thereby breaking the law, if by accommodating to his/her religious beliefs and practices the employer is caused undue hardship. "An accommodation may cause undue hardship if it is costly, compromises workplace safety, decreases workplace efficiency, infringes on the rights of other employees, or requires other employees to do more than their share of potentially hazardous or burdensome work."(EEOC) In this case, I would argue that due to a low number of workers that I currently have working in my store, by accommodating to the religious practices and beliefs of the two workers, I am forcing the remaining workforce to do more than their share of irksome work and sharply decreasing my workplace efficiency. I would, ergo, proceed to contest said employees' Unemployment Compensation claim. If the employees refused to work on Sunday due to personal recreation, the same action should be taken as with the case of exercising religious practices. The difference in this case, is that, given my company is in Tennessee which is an "Employment At-Will" state, as an employer, I am able to "fire, suspend, or discipline the employees for any reason, good or bad."(TN.GOV) Citations: 1) www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/religion.cfm2) www.tn.gov/labor-wfd/faq_laws.shtml#employmentatwillExcellent point. However, the EEOC only applies to businesses which have 15 or more full time employees, so if the store is not a national chain but rather a locally owned shop with so few employees (thus your reason for firing the two who refused to cooperate), would the employer be justified in arguing with EEOC regulations? Thanks for the references! For some reason, the employment at will policy didn't even cross my mind. And I knew that there was a minimum employee requirement on some policies, but I didn't know that one was attached to the EEOC.
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Post by bcald20 on Oct 2, 2012 10:50:31 GMT -5
According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, an employer is not discriminating an employee, thereby breaking the law, if by accommodating to his/her religious beliefs and practices the employer is caused undue hardship. "An accommodation may cause undue hardship if it is costly, compromises workplace safety, decreases workplace efficiency, infringes on the rights of other employees, or requires other employees to do more than their share of potentially hazardous or burdensome work."(EEOC) In this case, I would argue that due to a low number of workers that I currently have working in my store, by accommodating to the religious practices and beliefs of the two workers, I am forcing the remaining workforce to do more than their share of irksome work and sharply decreasing my workplace efficiency. I would, ergo, proceed to contest said employees' Unemployment Compensation claim. If the employees refused to work on Sunday due to personal recreation, the same action should be taken as with the case of exercising religious practices. The difference in this case, is that, given my company is in Tennessee which is an "Employment At-Will" state, as an employer, I am able to "fire, suspend, or discipline the employees for any reason, good or bad."(TN.GOV) Citations: 1) www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/religion.cfm2) www.tn.gov/labor-wfd/faq_laws.shtml#employmentatwillYou made some great points about laws that I was completely unaware of and that is definitely true about putting a strain on your other employees. You would have an excellent argument.
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Post by caitlandd on Oct 9, 2012 17:04:14 GMT -5
I would definitely contest their claim! There is no reason for my entire store to be penalized because they don't want to work on Sunday. Also, if they decided to leave the company, then their unemployment is hardly my fault.
If employees are so desperate to play gold on Sundays, they can go before 12 when the store opens. And realistically, not every single employee will work every single Sunday, especially not in a retail store.
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