Reply #31: Legally, Dell's in a bit of a bind [View All]

[Xithras]

You can't favor one religion over another in the workplace or it's discrimination. Why does that matter? Because by allowing Muslims to have "prayer time", you also have to allow other religions THEIR prayer time. What happens when a Fred Phelps time ultraconservative wants HIS prayer time, and his group starts preaching their ultraorthodox bullshit on company grounds? You can't censor religious speech on break time (or again, they'll sue you for discrimination), so are you simply going to allow their anti-"anyone but us" tirades?

The only way for a company to protect themselves from lawsuits over religious discrimination is to ban them all equally. Religious practices have no place in the workplace.

And for what it's worth, I've been a manager and had Jewish employees in the exact situation you described. We cut them no breaks for the sabbath. If they could get someone to trade days with them, that was great, but the onus was on them to make sure they had the day off. On occassion, nobody could trade with them and they had to use vacation time to take off early. That's what equality is all about...everyone gets treated equally, and nobody gets special favors or time off simply because they go to this church or worship that god.