Could Seventh Day Adventist Claim Saturdays Off?

[Stan]

December 03, 2010

Could Seventh Day Adventist Claim Saturdays Off?

A Michigan grocery store clerk asked his manager not to schedule him on Saturdays so he could observe the Sabbath. His manager ultimately fired him for not working Saturdays.

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What happened. “Paul” was a Seventh Day Adventist. He observed the Sabbath from sunset on Friday until sunset on Saturday, and was religiously obligated to refrain from working during that time. He worked for 8 years for a Farmer Jack grocery store in Madison Heights, and during that time never worked on Saturdays. Farmer Jack left the Michigan market in 2007 and Hollywood Supermarket purchased many of its stores. Paul applied for a job with Hollywood at the store where he had been working. He indicated on his application that he was unavailable to work on Saturdays. Hollywood hired him as a part-time produce clerk.

Preparing for reopening, Hollywood summoned all employees to work on Saturday, July 7, 2007. Paul came to work that day in order to keep his job. He met another employee in the same department who preferred to work Saturdays to Sundays, and the two of them agreed to trade shifts. They told “Al,” the manager of the produce department, about their plan, and believed that he’d agreed to it.

Despite this apparent understanding, Paul found himself scheduled to work on several subsequent Saturdays. He worked those shifts but left notes for Al, telling him that he did not want to work Saturdays. Al claimed not to have received any of those notes, though he did tell the court that he had spoken to Paul and told him that he could not accommodate his scheduling requests.

In August the store terminated another part-time employee which made it even more difficult for Al to let Paul take Saturdays off. On Saturday, September 8 Paul again asked Al not to schedule him for Saturday shifts, explaining that he needed to observe the Sabbath. Al sent him to discuss the matter with the store manager. Paul claimed that the manager told him he did not need to work that day if he did not want to; the manager claimed that he told Paul he would assume that he had quit voluntarily if he went home that day.

Paul punched out and went home. He returned to work the next day, and the manager informed him that he was being terminated for leaving early the day before. Paul filed a lawsuit in federal court, claiming that Hollywood had violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act for terminating him due to his religious beliefs. Hollywood asked the court to dismiss the case.

What the court said. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it illegal for an employer to fire an employee or otherwise discriminate against him on the basis of religion. Title VII requires employers to accommodate all aspects of religious observance and practice unless that accommodation would cause the employer undue hardship in conducting business.

In order to make his claim for religious discrimination, Paul had to convince the court that he held a sincere religious belief that conflicted with an employment requirement, that he had told Hollywood about the conflict, and that he was fired or disciplined for failing to put his job over his religious observance. Hollywood didn’t dispute that Paul had a sincere religious belief and that he had told his managers about his need to observe the Sabbath. But it did appear that Hollywood had fired Paul for refusing to work on Saturday, so the court ruled that he had made an initial case.

Hollywood then had to prove that accommodating Paul was unreasonable. Hollywood claimed that it would have had to hire another employee or leave the produce department understaffed in order to let Paul off on Saturdays. The court agreed that this would have caused undue hardship to Hollywood. Title VII does not require employers to hire new employees or reschedule all others just to accommodate religious observance. The court concluded that Hollywood could not reasonably accommodate Paul’s request without undue hardship. It dismissed Paul’s case. Prach v. Hollywood Supermarket, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, No. 09-13756 (2010)

Point to remember. If you accommodate one employee’s religious observance, you’ll probably have to do it for all employees; but you don’t always have to accommodate.

Source

[Kountzer]

The Lord of the sabbath, and the sabbath institution that He created will be here forever, long after the ashes of that job and employer have been blown into eternity.

[whbae]

I think Paul was inconsistent with his behavior. If he firmly believed on not working on Sabbath, he should not have gone to work at all in the beginning rather than leave early.

Won

[fccool]

What do you think would happen if Adventist university professor has a change of mind and starts worshiping on Sunday ... and whats to retain his job as Adventist university professor? Or, let's say that Adventist pastor changes his mind about some key doctrinal issue?

It really cuts both ways, and this issue has always bothered me. It seems to protect the religious disposition, and to ignore the other side of the coin.

[John317]

What do you think would happen if Adventist university professor has a change of mind and starts worshiping on Sunday ... and whats to retain his job as Adventist university professor? Or, let's say that Adventist pastor changes his mind about some key doctrinal issue?

People are free to think and teach anything they want but that doesn't mean tithe-paying members or the church will support them while they do it.

I have known some pastors who did just what you suggest, but they were honest enough to resign their position in the church.

Dr. Ford is a good example of what should happen when university professors teach things directly contrary to the church on key doctrinal issues. I am not saying everything done in his case was right, but it was right for him to stop being a university professor in an Adventist school.

[Dr. Shane]

It sounds like Paul's legal team dropped the ball on this one. According to the story, Paul worked for Farmer Jack Grocery for 8 years and they accommodated the Sabbath. How did they do that? If it did not create a hardship for them, why would have it created a hardship for Hollywood Supermarket? This was a part-time job. Employers can juggle hours of part-time employees around. The story also states that Paul had an agreement with another worker to work his hours on Saturdays. Either the story is poorly written and leaving out a lot of relevant information or Paul's legal team hung him out to dry.

[Pastor_Chick]

Why would a Christian, and especially a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, ever initiate any case respecting religion, or the observance thereof, in a civil court?

Pastor A. T. Jones, one of the 1888 messengers, once said that to initiate a lawsuit in civil court would be breaking the Sabbath commandment.

I agree.

(This one takes a little spiritual "eyesalve" [Rev. 3:18].)