Adventist fired for refusing to work on the Sabbath

[Stan]

By Tom Sharpe | THE NEW MEXICAN

April 23, 2006

Seventh-day Adventist says she was fired for refusing to work on her Sabbath

A Seventh-day Adventist is suing Casa Real Care Center, claiming she was fired last year because she refused to work on her Sabbath.

Seventh-day Adventists, like Jews, observe the Sabbath from sundown Fridays to sundown Saturdays, rather than on Sundays like most Christians.

Luz Tarango of Santa Fe says in a complaint filed in state District Court that she has been discriminated against because of her religion.

From March 2000, when she was hired as a nursing assistant by Casa Real, until late 2003, the nursing home accommodated her and did not require her to work during her Sabbath, she says in the complaint.

In late 2003, the complaint says, the administrators began scheduling her on Saturdays, but she traded shifts with co-workers to avoid working that day, until December 2004, when she was unable to trade shifts.

When she was assigned a Saturday shift in March 2005 and was again unable to trade shifts with co-workers, Casa Real administrator Troy Brigham and Tarango’s supervisor, Joan Stone, told her “work or be fired,” the complaint says.

“When she did not work that shift,” it continues, “Ms. Tarango paid the severe price of being fired.”

According to the complaint, the state Department of Labor’s Human Rights Division reviewed Tarango’s case and last October issued a determination of probable cause in her favor. On March 2, the division gave Tarango the right to sue, the complaint says.

Neither Brigham, the administrator at Casa Real, 1650 Galisteo St., nor Duane Gilkey, an Albuquerque lawyer who represents Silverstone Heathcare, the national firm that owns 10 Casa Real nursing homes in New Mexico, responded to messages seeking comment.

Tarango’s lawyer, Daniel Faber of Albuquerque, said she speaks little English and has been a Seventh-day Adventist since 1979.

He said Tarango’s church contacted him because he recently represented a Roswell Seventh-day Adventist who was fired from the U.S. Post Office because he objected to working from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.

The letter carrier, Lonnie Leonard, was reinstated, paid $50,000 in back pay and credited with annual leave as a result of a settlement last October, Faber said.

Tarango’s complaint asks that she be rehired and scheduled for regular work, though not on her Sabbath, and for unspecified general, compensatory and punitive damages, lawyer fees and additional damages for emotional distress.

Early Christians observed Saturday as the Sabbath, based on the Genesis verse about God resting on the seventh day after creating heaven and earth, and the commandment from God to Moses in Exodus to keep the Sabbath holy. But early church leaders moved the Sabbath to Sunday to distinguish themselves from Jews.

About 1 million people in the United States and 13 million worldwide are Seventh-day Adventists, a religion started in the 1830s in upstate New York by farmer William Miller. Seventh-day Adventists follow dietary rules in the book of Leviticus that call for eschewing pork and fish without scales.

They usually refrain from smoking and drinking alcohol, and often refuse to serve in military forces except as medics and other noncombatants.

Todd McFarland, general counsel for the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Silver Springs, Md., estimated that each year, about 1,000 Seventh-day Adventists in the United States are dismissed from their jobs because they refuse to work on their Sabbath days.

He said the U.S. Postal Service is “our main nemesis” on the issue, partly because the service maintains it cannot overrule union contracts calling for Saturday shifts.

McFarland said postal deliveries have been moved from Saturdays to Sundays in Collegedale, Tenn., because many residents are Seventh-day Adventists.

Source http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/42648.html

[Dr. Shane]

Correct me if I am wrong, but it isn't against our religion for a nurse to work on the Sabbath. I don't know if the Casa Real Care Center could use that as a defense. Do Adventist hospitals and nursing homes require nurses to work on the Sabbath?

[Gregory Matthews]

The issue is not fundamentally what the Chruch teaches (although is has some tangential aspects) but what the individual holds. In other words, if Nurse Smith believes it is wrong to perform certain work on the Sabbath, it is her beliefs that become the fundamental issue, and not the denomination.

A Nursing Home potentially has the legal defense that they have to hire help seven days a week, and it is to much trouble to accomodate someone who will not work on one specific day. That defense is subject to challenge, and proof, but it is the most likely defense.

[Dr. Shane]

Yes, I understand that if I am hired as a wine-taster and then fired because I refuse to do my job based on my religious conviction, I cannot make a winery hire me back as a wine-taster.

I also understand that the Supreme Court has ruled that it is religious discrimination to fire someone due to their religious day observance. However in this case it would be interesting. The health message is a major part of Adventistism and the idea that it is sinful to take care of the ill on the Sabbath seems to strike at the heart of our health message.

I do see the comparison between this and the consciencous objector but also see differences. Our church does not believe that serving in combat is sinful. However many Adventists have individual convictions against it and thus have been able to gain consciencious objector status. However a major difference is that the Adventist church doesn't run a military with soldiers serving in combat. It does run medical facilies with nurses working on Sabbath - however I don't know if Adventist hospitals mandate employees to work on Sabbaths or if they allow for individual convictions.

[olger]

"Our church does not believe that serving in combat is sinful."

The work of Satan is to make war against those who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus.

"I was shown that God's people, who are His peculiar

treasure, cannot engage in this perplexing war, for it is opposed to every principle of their faith. In the army they cannot obey the truth and at the same time obey the requirements of their officers. There would be continual violation of conscience.

Worldly men are governed by worldly principles, but God's people cannot be governed by these motives."

He who has God's law written in the heart will obey God rather than man, and will sooner disobey all men than deviate in the least from the commandment of God. God's people, taught by the inspiration of truth, and led by a good conscience to live by every word of God, will take His law, written in their hearts, as the only authority which they can acknowledge or consent to obey. The wisdom and authority of the divine law are supreme.

[Dr. Shane]

In the Church Manual I have, serving in combat is not listed as a reason to discipline a member of the church. Perhaps it is in the most recent or has been in past manuals but that is straying a bit from the subject. At any rate, I may be mistaken but know there are many Adventists currently serving in combat positions.

In this case I noticed the church member is hispanic too. Hispanic Adventists are normally much more conservative and, in my opinion, sometimes make up their own rules. One example is that my wife's aunt was disfellowshipped for wearing jeans to church.

[Parade Orange]

I thought my church was nasty!

i will count my blessings

[Amelia]

The nurses' first problem was not talking to her employer when they started scheduling her for Sabbath work. Once a Sabbatarian lapses on just one minute part, the whole accomidation begins to fall apart. The second was involving her coworkers by expecting someone to always trade shifts with her and doing this for a year. And really, living and working in the United States for 6 yrs and not learning English? Was this an all hispanic staffed nursing home with all spanish speaking elderly? I also thought that nurses and doctors from other countries had to pass exams here in the states in order to practice? Wouldnt that have to include understanding english?

[Halfstep Denise]

I agree with you, Amelia! The issue should have been dealt with between the nurse and the her supervisor and/or administration from the beginning.

Regarding the lack of English, I wondered the same thing, was it an all Spanish speaking nursing facility?

I have been a patient at an Adventist hospital involving at least one weekend and it was a nightmare! The unit was like a ghost town on Sabbath. Thank goodness my family came to visit! They were able to help.

Halfstep Denise

[Dr. Shane]

I believe that hispanics in New Mexico, like Texas, are not in the minority. It is actually harder to get by in some areas without knowing Spainish than it is without knowing English.

In this case, the believer is a nurse's aid. I believe there are four levels of nurses. Nurse's aids, LPNs (LVNs), RNs and nurses with master degrees. In Texas, the state exam for nurses' aids is available in Spanish. My wife was certified by passing her test in Spanish. Many come to the US and live their entire lives without learning English.