Monday, January 12, 2009

Christian Goose...Muslim Gander...all is not equal...


A jury hearing a religious discrimination lawsuit brought by a cashier who claims she was fired because she thought it was a sin to work on Sundays has found in favor of her employer.

After two hours of deliberation, jurors returned a verdict for Aldi, the discount grocery store in Uniontown where Kimberly Bloom worked.

Ms. Bloom filed suit against the store after she was fired in February 2006 for failing to show up for two Sunday shifts in a row. She claimed the store fired her out of retaliation.

Aldi's attorneys asserted that they attempted to accommodate Ms. Bloom first by creating a neutral shift rotation in which she'd only have to work seven Sundays a year; by allowing her to trade her Sunday shifts with someone else; and by offering to schedule around her religious services.
I don't have much stomach for the religious accommodation angle regardless of your beliefs. But, I do have a HUGE problem with inconsistency...

JACKSONVILLE, FLA. -- An ex-employee of Ray's Plumbing Contractors here won a $105,000 legal victory in late March against his former employer in a case that involved religious discrimination. Punitive damages accounted for the majority of the award when the court found that Ray's did not accommodate the Muslim plumber's request to leave work early on Fridays to attend prayer services.