Florida Woman Fired In Case Of Religious Discrimination!!

[mermaid]

A Florida woman was recently fired by Rising Star, a telecommunications company owned by a Muslim, because she was eating a BLT sandwich in the breakroom, in violation of unwritten company policy forbidding pork on the company premises.

This according to my local radio news this morning.

What ever happened to the Catholic woman's right to Freedom of Religion? The Catholic woman is the one who was fired. Does she not have the right not to have her employer's religious beliefs (Muslim) forced on her?? does not the Freedom of Religion ALSO include the freedom FROM Religion??

What if this Muslim business owner began requiring all his female employees to wear a bourka (spelling?) to work?

Can he do this?

Why should the owner of a private company (not a mosque, church, synagogue, etc.) be allowed to dictate HIS own personal religious beliefs onto his employees, and regulate their conduct that they must follow the precepts of HIS religion in their own lives?

I can see no rational reason WHY this business owner should be allowed to fire this woman.

[madrchsod]

1. he can do anything he wishes

it`s his business..now it would be up to the courts to decide if the unwritten rule is valid..she will be able to draw unemployment and i`m sure there are many employers who will want to talk to this woman. she`s better off not working for an asshole like this guy.

[mermaid]

3. No, He Can't!!

He cannot force others (his employees) to follow the precepts of HIS religion, damnit!!

What if he required all women employees to wear a bourka? (spelling)

[IronLionZion]

6. There's a difference between forcing people to DO something

and banning them from bringing something onto his property.

[mermaid]

8. I Fail To See The Difference

and even if you CAN make your case, that there is a difference, I still strongly object to FIRING this woman over what the owner even ADMITTED was unwritten policy.
I'm sorry, but, just because this man owns a business, he does NOT have the right to control the diet of his employees.
Look, I worked for a Jewish lawyer once. I brought ham sandiches occasionally. My boss had no problem with this. He didn't want any part of the ham sandwich himself...but he never sought to stop ME from eating a ham sandwich.
On those occasions where we had pizza together (it was just him and me in the office...) I requested special that the ENTIRE pizza be made a cheese-only pizza...and that they bring extra pepperoni for me...wrapped separately from the rest of the pizza. when the pizza arrived, I could put all the pepperoni I wanted on MY pizza. No half-and-half pizza, where some of the juice of the pepperoni would get on his half...I respected his dietary constraints, and had the pepperoni wrapped completely separate from the rest of the pizza, and merely added it to my own, after the pizza was already on MY OWN plate.
And he had no problem with this.
I took great pains to respect his dietary and religious customs, similarly, he took great pains to respect MINE. and we got along just fine.
This woman did not make an ostentatios display of eating her BLT...nor did she try and force or trick anyone else into eating some of the B in her BLT.
Now, if I were HER...and I had an idea the boss was as much an asshole as he seems, I, personally, would have eaten my BLT in my own car, out of sight. Meanwhile, I'd have also been looking for another job, because I'll be good and goddamned if ANYONE is going to force precepts of THEIR religion onto me, just because they employ me. They do NOT have that right. slavery was outlawed by the Thirteenth amendment. The man does not own me, just because he employs me...and I'll be DAMNED if I would allow him to dictate MY diet to me. Under any circumstances.
I remain firmly behind this woman, and I hope she sues the living daylights outta this schmuck...make him laugh out the other side of his weird beard!!

[lpbk2713]

2. Given that she was on lunch break and on "her" time......

she wasn't on the clock, or on "his" time. His values may have been offended but as long as she didn't make an offensive display of eating the BLT she has just cause to seek remedy in litigation if necessary.

[roguevalley]

4. she probably has a remedy if they were 'unwritten' rules. Lawyers?

[IronLionZion]

5. Firing her was wrong

But no pork on the property means no pork on the property. That's reasonable. The muslim owns the place, so he has the right to forbid pork. He wasn't forcing her to do anything, just to NOT bring pork into his business. And the Catholic woman has every right to be Catholic. You can be Catholic and eat pork for breakfast and dinner and just not bring it for lunch.

[JVS]

7. I think that the firing is wrong, but I am not sure that it is a case of..

religious discrimination.

First, I will say that it seems clear that this unwritten rule was based on the owner's religion.

Secondly, if a rule is unwritten then I seriously doubt the propriety of enforcing it. It seems to me that a rule should be written.

However, as far as I know eating pork is allowed by Catholicism, but is by no mean required of the Catholic faithful. Thus I think that it would not be too hard to have compliance to the rule.

Frankly though, I think that the boss is exerting too much authority here. On the other hand, if it were a food prep job, I could understand the need to keep everything under tight control, but this isn't the case here.