(AgapePress) - A federal employment discrimination
complaint has been filed on behalf of a Missouri woman who says she was fired
for refusing to work on Sunday.
Connie Rehm was an employee of the Savannah Branch of the
Rolling Hills Consolidated Library in Savannah, Missouri, for 12 years. During
that time, she was considered one of the library's top employees.
Rehm had never been required to work on Sundays until
earlier this year, when she was informed along with other employees that the
library was implementing a schedule change and, starting with a 3-month trial
period, would be open to the public on weekends.
According to Drew Gardner, an attorney with the Christian Law Association, Rehm was
fired not long after telling her boss that sincerely held religious beliefs
prevented her from working on Sunday. Now Savannah officials are facing a
federal employment discrimination suit.
Gardner says a federal law, the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
mandates that employers must accommodate the religious beliefs of their
employees. The attorney notes that the Christian Law Association deals with
cases similar to Rehm's all over the U.S.
"The Christians that we represent in these cases are good,
hardworking people who are typically willing to work six days a week," Gardner
says, "and they will give their employer their all when they're on the job,
but they just have beliefs against working on Sundays."
According to the St. Joseph News-Press, the
library's director said discussions were held with Ms. Rehm, but the library
found it could not accommodate Rehm's needs and enacted her two-week notice
after she refused to work "the schedule presented to her."
But Gardner contends that the library officials did not
make a diligent effort to consider and work around their employee's religious
convictions.
"We believe the library did not fulfill its duty to
accommodate Miss Rehm," he says. Instead, Gardner says her employers "took a
weak stab at an attempt at accommodation" by asking other employees to
volunteer to work Rehm's Sunday shift. Even in that effort, the attorney says
the library failed to give employees enough time to respond to the request for
volunteers.
The president of the library board resigned after Rehm was
fired, and a number of local patrons have held demonstrations and circulated
petitions to protest the dismissal of the library employee, as well as the
resignation of another staff member who refused to work the Sunday
hours.
The Christian Law Association describes itself as a "legal
helps ministry," and provides assistance to Christian churches and individuals
that are experiencing legal difficulty in practicing their faith because of
some form of governmental regulation, prohibition, or intrusion.
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