The United States is filled with people of all different faiths, including people who don’t profess any faith at all. One of the bedrocks of American society is religious freedom, which has been interpreted by the legislature and courts to mean that employers must make reasonable accomodations for their employees’ religious requirements. If they don’t, they might be sued for religious discrimination.
For observant Seventh Day Adventists, Saturday is the sabbath and they are not supposed to work. When a Bronx Seventh Day Adventist asked for Saturdays off from his boss at a CVS pharmacy he had no problem getting the time off. Once his boss realized that he was trying to get the time off for religious reasons, his boss allegedly forced him to start working.
His former supervisor would consistently ask the man why he followed a “white boy religion” for which he apparently held great disdain. It is not entirely clear why he held such negative opinions of Seventh Day Adventism.
The Bronx man has filed a religious-discrimination lawsuit against both the pharmacy and his former supervisor in Manhattan federal court. Though he no longer works for CVS, it is unknown if he left his position or if he was forced out.
The man worked as a loss prevention specialist, which required him to file confidential reports with his former supervisor about suspected thefts. After the supervisor realized that the specialist was a Seventh Day Adventist, he allegedly started to tell workers when the specialist believed they were stealing.
Source: New York Post, “Bronx man says Muslim CVS boss disliked his ‘white boy religion’,” Rich Calder, April 14, 2014
