two replies

requirement:

• In your opinion, should corporations provide accommodations for their employees to practice their religion? Explain.

There is a requirement of two postings minimum for each student.
However, to receive full credit students must exceed the minimum. The
comments must be substantive. Refrain from short postings such as “I
agree’, “it is a good idea”, etc. You must clearly explain your
position. There must be posting for both weeks of the module.
I’m most interested in your personal opinion, but if you use some
information from outside sources, you must provide references for those
sources.

1.

The answer should be yes but I’m not too sure. Employees should not
be forced to go against their religion but it would be a concern if were
truly harmful to the business. An accommodation for religion could
cause resentment amongst employees. For example, the community where I
work has a really nice Christmas event every December. Since it is
quite large quite a few Parks & Recreation employees are required to
work. If there is an employee that is of a faith that does not
celebrate Christmas, they may have an objection to working the event.
If that employee is allowed to skip the event, it could cause a problem
with employees that are required to work that event that really don’t
want to be there. Do you not make it mandatory to accommodate
everyone’s wishes? What if you do not have enough workers to make the
event successful? I think that in a case where it is known that events
like that are part of the job it should be made clear when an employee
is hired.

What about someone that has a job function added after they are hired
that goes against their religious beliefs? For example, a clerk has
been issuing marriage licenses as part of their job for years but gay
marriage is legalized. If that clerk is Christian, do they have to
issue the licenses? It is a refusal of a job duty but it was mandated
after they were hired. If you allow that person to refuse a job duty do
you have to allow others to refuse other types of job duties? I’m
really not sure how I feel about something like that. Maybe the
employer shouldn’t force the employee to perform the job duty if someone
else is available that can do it. Or, maybe that employee should be
given a choice of performing the duty or being placed in another
position.

As far as giving time for religious rituals such as praying I think
it could be allowed if it does not get in the way of the business or
make others uncomfortable. To keep things fair to all employees they
could be given break time and lunch hours that could be used for
whatever the employee wanted. If someone wants to take their
fifteen-minute break and go pray they should be allowed if it isn’t
disruptive. For services, I would think they could be allowed to use
vacation time if available.

2.

I believe that corporations should
provide accommodations only in specific situations. If they company is
religion based, such as Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-a,
they should provide accommodations for their employees to practice
their religion. These two companies are Christian based stores and are
closed on Sundays, the day of worship, and let their employees have the
day off of work. If a company employs a majority of people who practice
the same religion, then they should provide specific accommodations. For
example, if a company had employees where the majority of them
practiced Islam, the company could provide a place or room for them to
pray, since prayer occurs 5 times per day.

If a company doesn’t take a religious stance, I don’t think they need
to provide religious accommodations to their employees. Companies
should absolutely let their employees practice their
religion freely, as long as they do not force their religion on people
who do not have the same views, but I don’t think companies should be required to provide specific accommodations unless there are certain circumstances.