Posted on 01/17/2019 4:10:20 PM PST by lowbridge
A hotel dishwasher was awarded $21.5 million this week after she managed to convince a Miami jury that her employer had violated her religious rights — by making her work on Sundays.
“I love God,” said Marie Jean Pierre, speaking to NBC 6with her lawyer Marc Brumer.
“No work on Sunday because Sunday I honor God.”
Pierre, 60, got fired three years ago from her job at the Conrad Miami hotel — which was managed by Hilton at the time — after missing multiple shifts on Sunday to attend church service.
She later sued, claiming the hotel had violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — which bars race, religious and gender discrimination by employers.
Pierre and Brumer alleged in court hat the devout Baptist told her bosses she couldn’t work on Sundays and that she was a missionary, but they penciled her in anyway.
The hotel agreed to stop giving her the Sunday shifts for a lengthy period between 2009 and 2014. However, this ended in 2015 and they eventually began “demanding” that Pierre start working again.
“They accommodated her for 7 years and they easily could have accommodated her [again], but instead of doing that, they set her up for absenteeism and threw her out,” explained Brumer. “She’s a soldier of Christ. She was doing this for all the other workers who are being discriminated against.”
Pierre was ultimately able to persuade jurors that her “sincerely held religious belief, practice, or observance” conflicted with her employment requirement to work on Sundays.
She was awarded $536,000 in damages to compensate for lost wages, emotional pain and “mental anguish” — and $20 million in punitive damages, according to federal court documents.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Punitive damages will be reduced on appeal
I don’t give a crap what moslems do on Friday!
Lol!
Yeah but can your dishwasher file a suit? If not, then I doubt you have anything to worry about. Just don’t allow any lawyers into your house, especially the kitchen. 8>)
You may not, but a judge and jury just might...
Couldn’t they have just fired her for insubordination? She’s an at will employee.
Or you can get a different job without Sunday hours and learn to mind your own business?
Haitian plaintiff. Let me guess - majority or all-black jury.
In my religion, Wednesday is our Sabbath day.
I haven’t managed to get Wednesdays off yet.
Bake the cake
Wash the dish
The “satanists” and “pastafarians” we hear about in court are always ATHEISTS, theirs is not a sincerely held religious belief and it is WRONG to require that a Christian be 100% observant in all avenues of his or her life to claim “privilege” to act on religious belief.
If someone tells you that, for religious reasons they will not work on Sunday, (or Saturday or whatever their rest/worship day is) and you arrange to accommodate them you must continue to do so.
You have accepted their terms.
Had an employee who wore a beard for religious reasons, when the new owner came in he was told he would have to shave.
I checked all the rules, federal and state and told them that they would just have to live with his wearing a beard.
> You realize this precedent will enable Moslems to sue for being forced to work on Friday, don’t you? <
But it’s more than just that. Devout Muslims are expected to pray five times a day, every day. So Mr. Employer, you had better build that into the work schedule...unless you want to get sued.
Gee, I wonder if I can get a settlement from those Sundays I worked as a dishwasher - 30 years ago..
The lawyer must have put on a virtuoso performance; there’s no way this holds up under appeal.
If her religious beliefs were so important that she couldn’t do the job, she should have found work more compatible with her beliefs. $20 mil is an obscene payout.
Agreed. 21.5 is absurd. It sounds as if an award is due, but 21mil ?
Was it part of her hiring contract that she may have to work Sundays is the question.
$21 million to offend a Christian on a Sunday. Sukitup buttercup!!It is just beginning.Close Sundays !! We are offended!!
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