Trenton, NJ – NJ Court Of Appeals Ruling May Negatively Impact Observant Jews

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    Trenton, NJ – Sabbath-observant Jews may have a harder time getting an accommodation for religious observance after the Third Circuit Court of Appeals upheld New Jersey Transit’s determination to fire a born-again-Christian bus driver who refused to work on Sundays because it is his Christian Sabbath.

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    New Jersey Jewish News reports (http://bit.ly/McL7kz) that Roger Fouche (pronounced Foo-shay) sued New Jersey Transit following his termination. Mr. Fouche sued in Federal District Court in Newark under the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. The trial court rejected his claim and the appeals court upheld that ruling.

    Mr. Fouche was initially hired as a part-time driver, but upon accepting a full-time position with NJ Transit, asked to be excused from driving on Sundays. In March 2008, he was let go after just three months with the company. The appeals court agreed with NJ Transit’s finding that allowing Mr. Fouche to have Sundays off “would have placed an undue hardship” on the agency.

    NJ Transit alleged that Mr. Fouche knew he would sometimes be assigned to work on Sundays when he took the full-time position, and that granting him Sundays off would violate the seniority provision of the union’s collective bargaining agreement.

    In their July 16th opinion, the judges wrote, “Fouche’s good faith in taking a full-time position with the New Jersey Transit is questionable because when he took that position he surely knew or should have known from his prior part-time employment with New Jersey Transit that its drivers ordinarily are sometimes assigned Sunday driving duties.”

    Marc Stern, associate general counsel for legal advocacy at the American Jewish Committee warned that this ruling could negatively impact Jewish job applicants who do not work on the Sabbath, calling the ruling “a huge problem for observant Jews.” He explained that while it is illegal to ask outright if someone is Sabbath observant, potential employers can ask, “Are you available seven days a week, 24 hours a day?” This would eliminate Sabbath observers from the applicant pool, unless interviewees lie.

    Stern added that judges have become less tolerant of religious accommodations and suggested that religious employees ask their colleagues to switch shifts with them, allowing for an “available accommodation.” Mr. Fouche said he was not given an option to switch his shift with another driver, and that his supervisor denied his request claiming if she gave him off, she would have to give others off as well.

    Matthew Weisberg, Mr. Fouche’s attorney, said that the ruling, “allows an employer to effectively, without proof, say something is a financial hardship so as not to have to make an accommodation.”

    For now, Mr. Fouche is employed as a part-time postal worker and is pursuing his master’s degree in divinity at the Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. His is also a training minister at the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn.

    He has yet to decide if he will file an appeal.

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    6 Comments
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    dullradiance
    Active Member
    dullradiance
    12 years ago

    This isnt really anything “new” with regard to our Shabbos needs. Google “OU Brochure Religious Accommodation in the Workplace”. Unfortunately when agencies are dealing with strong unions and seniority rules, it might be considered an undue hardship.

    On the other hand, if he wants to make this a Federal case, the Department of Justice did force the LA transit system to make an accomodation.

    Truth
    Truth
    12 years ago

    This isn’t anything new in the good ole US of A. The Third & Second Circuits are notoriously Anti-religion. Perhaps we need to ammend the law, so that this country will have real religious rights in the workplace.

    Michel
    Michel
    12 years ago

    He should appeal. Religious accomodation shuold take precedence over antiquated union rules. For that matter, abolish all unions. Theyre a bunch of thugs. America can increase its productivity a few percentage points if we got rid of the featherbedding and the no show jobs like coal tender on electric trains and the javits center employees who cant plug in an aplliance because only the union electrician can do that. Disgusting.

    Reb Yid
    Reb Yid
    12 years ago

    The law obviously works better in a non-union situation. Also, it might be best to not purposely take a job knowing that the normal working schedule is to work on Saturday, and then spring it on the employer that you can’t work on Saturday.

    DRSLZ
    DRSLZ
    12 years ago

    Been there, done that. It’s very difficult for frum Jews to prevail in such cases. Agudah will try to get a lawyer to take the case, sometimes pro bono, but it’s a long and costly battle, with at most a Pyrrhic victory, and now there is one more weapon in the armamentarium of the corporations.

    Interestingly, the O.U., AJC, et al have done little if anything to help frum employees in such cases. It’s only the Agudah that has tried to help.

    What a sad outcome not only for our kehillah but for people of faith everywhere.

    vinreader1
    vinreader1
    12 years ago

    The Agudah? Hah! I am Shomer Shabbos. I used to be a City employee but then a new director was appointed who refused to let me leave early on Friday afternoon and make up the time during the week. I complained to the internal EEO unit and, instead of working out an arrangement, the Department retaliated by bringing me up on disciplinary charges (which were never adjudicated). I called the Agudah but they said the Agudah could not represent me as it was my word against theirs. So I filed a lawsuit without any help from the Agudah. The Department responded to my lawsuit by transferring me to a new location further away from home where it was even more difficult to leave on time and keep Shabbos. Within a week a swastika appeared on my desk and I resigned. I went back to the Agudah and the man told me he could no longer help me as I had filed a lawsuit. Finally the City offered a settlement which I accepted. I used to make generous donations to the Agudah as they say they “fight for the rights of religious Jews”. Now I won’t give them a penny.