Greetings from San Diego. I am grateful to Dan and Ethan for inviting me back for a guest stint on Prawfs. As one of those other-gendered Prawfs that are grossly under-represented on the blogosphere, guest stints are an optimal solution. For me, the ultimate reason for not blogging more is the work/family bind, raising two small children as a first year prawf. So here I am, on a saturday morning, beautiful Sunny San Diego, opting to catch up on email, blogging, and class preps, while my husband (bless his also-on-a-tenure-track heart) is hanging out with the girls at the SD Zoo (they are on Panda watch, my daughters’ favorite).
While stinting, I hope to contribute some thoughts from my fields, Employment Law and Admin law. This semester I am also teaching a course called “Work, Welfare and Justice”, a fun mix of Work Law and more macro thinking about public/private design and new governance theory.
Posted by Orly Lobel on March 4, 2006 at 02:09 PM
Comments
Title VII prohibits discrimination “because of” “religion” as well as requires employers to reasonably accommodate an employee’s religious practices and observances. “Religion” includes “all aspects of religious observances and practices as well as belief.” Not allowing an employee to wear a religious symbol on a sacred day should seem to be an easy case of religious discrimination. Interestingly, religion discrimination involve less than 5 percent of the charges filed annually with the EEOC.
Posted by: Lobel | Mar 6, 2006 12:21:13 AM
Noticed you have “Employment Law” background. Thought I’d throw out this issue that occurred in San Antonio, Texas (a highly Hispanic, Catholic city) involving a family member. Just before Ash Wednesday, her employer (computer company) e-mailed to all employees that they should wash off their ashes before returning to work. I’m not an expert in Civil Rights law, but to see this kind of thing happen in 2006 was appalling. I suppose it is just another step in bashing Christians because they’ll shut up and take it. Would anyone tell a Hindu to remove her Bindi, or a Jew to remove their Yarmulke? Thought you might enjoy commenting on such ‘Religion in the Workplace’ issues.
Posted by: Ronny | Mar 5, 2006 7:53:49 PM