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According to the EEOC, "Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals because of their religion (or lack of religious belief) in hiring, firing, or any other terms and conditions of employment." With the holidays upon us, businesses are preparing for alternate hours and/or limited staff. Some, unfortunately, have lost jobs for various reasons — likely including religious beliefs.
One Redditor said an approved day off to observe the Winter Solstice led to sudden termination.
"I am/was waitstaff at a small homestyle restaurant, not part of a chain," the Redditor known as u/antbarry wrote in the "Antiwork" forum. "Early in Dec. I offered to work Christmas and Christmas eve if I could have all day today off (winter solstice). Manager was happy to agree."
u/antbarry said the manager said to be at work at 3 p.m. until closing time, "which would ruin my plans for my Solstice celebration." The poster did a little super-sleuthing to figure out who'd called off, but discovered something else entirely.
"Everyone but me got 50.00 Christmas bonuses on last Friday's check," they wrote. "I messaged the manager, and he said I didn't get the Christmas bonus, "because there is no Christmas for you, you will get plenty of $$ by working those two days, an opportunity the other staff doesn't get." Then he reminded me I needed to be logged in and ready to go at 3 pm. I messaged back that I had today off, and would see him at 3 tomorrow for work."
u/antbarry might not have planned to lose their job that day, but things took a turn.
"He texted me back that if I didn't work tonight, I was fired. I said that I had tonight off and would not come in, and he texted back 'Psalms 14:1, You are fired, we won't miss a fool'. So now I'm baking a batch of cookies to take to my party this evening, and thinking about work and not work."
The post took off, snagging more than 30,000 upvotes in five hours. Among the 2,500 comments, many offered sage advice on how the poster should proceed.
"Looks like a clear case of religious discrimination to me. File an EEOC complaint. And of course file for unemployment as well," PMProfessor said.
Abolish-Dads agreed saying, "Honestly. Everyone has mentioned the fact that the Bible verse is ridiculously rude and immature, but OP was very clear that today was a holiday to them, then they were fired with a bible verse effectively calling them a fool for not being Christian! They might as well have sent a text saying "we're firing you because of your religious affiliation" and made the whole thing faster."
"Open and shut case, really. Especially if everything is in text message. Religion, sex and politics are three things I never talked about at work, mainly out of respect for others views but also for this type of situation. @op: google a local employment lawyer, give them a rundown that says what happened and it's in text. They should take this with contingency from a settlement or judgement because this is so straightforward. Then let them start the process with the eeoc. Meanwhile, file for unemployment. You got this!" Natzfan19 wrote.
Psychosmith666 added, "F*****g HAMMER that guy right to his cross."
"This is a religious discrimination case. You could...(pardon the pun...) crucify the guy for it, courtesy your local dept. of labor," MacSpoone said.
