Complaint Review: V.A. Medical Center - EEOC - Lake City Florida

Mark, Get a hold of the Alliance Defense Fund, they are attorneys who specialize in this area of the law and they are FREE. Even if they can't specifically help you, they can and generally do find someone who is capable for your area and again it is usually free to you.

Did you take the job knowing that you would be scheduled for Friday evenings and Saturdays? If so, and you were trying to change it after the fact, you might not have much of a case. I was in charge of the telephone operators in a large medical center. The telephone room had to be manned 24/7. Potential job applicants were always told that they may have to work on weekends and holidays, including religious holidays. They were told that if they were scheduled to work on a day they wanted off for religious purposes, they could try to switch with someone else but if they couldn't they would have to work. The union contracts addressed this same issue and backed the policy of the hospital. The only way I think you would have any kind of case is if you were hired for a straight Mon to Fri, 9-5 position and it changed after the fact. Even that argument may not be valid because many union contracts and hospital policies state that they can change an employees shift to meet the needs of the institution. Did you try to file a grievance with your union? Not just meet with the steward but file a formal grievance? Unfortunately, hospitals need to be staffed 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week. It is very difficult to schedule around every employee's private or religious life. That's why there are well established policies regarding work schedules and religious holidays. It's unfortunate that no one wanted to switch with you. You're not clear as to whether you wanted every Sabbath off or just one in particular. If it was just one, your supervisor could have made a little more effort to find someone to switch with you, maybe even offering a little incentive to the other employees, that's what I would have done. But if you wanted every one off, after you were hired being fully aware you would have to work the Sabbath, that would have been impossible. For the record, I worked for a Catholic hospital and many of the Catholic employees had to work on Christmas, Easter, Good Friday and other holy days of obligation. It was impossible to give every Catholic employee off every one of those days.

If you are/did ask for friday from sundown to saturday from sundown because of the jewish sabbath, they have to make a reasonable accomadation. Fill an EEOC complaint directly with the EEOC. It doesn't matter what the letter say as long as you can show that you are a member of the Jewish religion or other religion that observes that day as the sabbath. Good luck.

In a couple of things. First, do your co workers know your religious convictions (not askin if your preaching, only if they know that you observe certain practices)? Have you practiced those convictions in the past, asking for other days off because of those convictions? And finally, given this is a VA facility, is yours a recognized religion (this seems to have gotten the spotlight lately, since they only recognize certain religions in the military)? I'm also interested in which Holy Day you were observing, as this could also 'tilt' how your employer saw things (bluntly, the vast majority know what Good Friday, Easter or Christmas holidays are, only a minority know what Summer Solstice is). I'll be watching for your update!

Were you asking for a certain Friday @ Sundown to Saturday @ sundown OR were you asking for EVERY Friday @ Sundown to Saturday @ Sundown? And before you ask, IT DOES MATTER.