Fired for Being a Pagan?

welcome once again to lato's law here's steve lato david sent me an interesting story and it's from religionnews.com but it's been widely reported elsewhere but i i saw their version of it i like their version of it so i'm gonna go with this one but a pagan sues panera bread company alleging religious discrimination religious discrimination a former baker for the panera chain said she was told she needed to find god according to a court filing heather greene wrote this story and the woman is from pennsylvania she filed a lawsuit recently against panera bread company alleging she was discriminated against and fired due to her religious beliefs and she's from clairton pennsylvania hired as a baker at the panera location in pleasant hills which is not far from pittsburgh they tell me and according to filing she never discussed her religion or religious beliefs at work she felt the subject was private and that's one of these interesting things is that many people have got beliefs that they like to keep themselves there's also people out there who've got beliefs that they want to share with others and that's fine but there are also people out there who want to i don't know push their beliefs on others and and and there's a fine line so you know if i'm sitting in my living room one day and someone comes up and knocks on my door and i open the door and i don't know who they are and they say can i talk to you about and they name a religion um i generally say no thank you and i close the door but i've had people show up on my porch before and say very rude things to me if you think about what they're actually saying to you i don't know you but i am here to try to help you because you're so screwed up that you don't know what you're doing so the woman at the center of this story is a pagan now that's an umbrella term used for a number of different growing religious and spiritual practices which center on things like nature or magic according to the lawsuit the subject of her religion came up in late may of 2020 when she was on a break with the store's assistant manager and the manager the manager asked her what her religion was so she answered i am pagan the manager reportedly responded by telling her she was going to hell and the assistant manager this is a quote vigorously nodded her head in agreement the lawsuit then goes on to describe a series of other discriminatory actions among the complaints are that the woman's hours were cut and when she asked why she was told she needed to find god before returning to her previous schedule she was reportedly docked pay for breaks that she did not take she uh said that she then asked if she could be transferred to a different store to which the district manager said reportedly no we're probably going to get rid of you anyway so a call to panera's corporate human resources went unanswered when the journalists sought an answer but according to the lawsuit the threats continued and turned violent at times alleging that there was a hostile work environment that arose because of this so in july the woman said she was told to give notice that she's leaving her job they told her we'd like you to resign now her husband also worked at panera and both of them were fired according to the suit the lawsuit was filed in pennsylvania federal court says that the woman's civil rights were violated under title vii of the civil rights act 1964 which prevents discrimination on the basis of race color religion sex and national origin so many people know although some people are shocked to find out that in america a lot of places you can be fired because you're higher the fact that you work there is considered at will meaning they can just fire you for no reason they could they a a boss can walk in one day just go you know something you're fired you don't have a contract you don't have an employment agreement of any sort that supersedes that many jobs in america are simply at will at will they can fire you for any reason except for the wrong reasons so they can walk in one day and just go we've decided to fire three people you you fired but they cannot fire you based on race color religion sex or national origin those are protected and and we we understand why that is and that makes sense so they can fire you for any reason so long as it's not one of the wrong reasons and and i know that sounds like a weird way to say it but it's it's better to phrase it that way to understand how broad the hiring and firing powers are of employers in america and i've spoken to a lot of especially young people who go out in the workforce and they have a problem with a boss and they get fired they go isn't that illegal do you have a contract no okay i know a lot of guys who worked in radio and gals radio is famous for people being fired for the craziest reasons no reasons station changed formats everyone's fired program director had a bad day half the people are fired so the woman who's filed the lawsuit declined an interview and again panera did not respond to a request for comment now the executive director of the pagan civil rights organization lady liberty league and senior minister of the circle sanctuary has reached out to both the company and the woman and said pagans are continuing the quest for full equality liberty and justice in the usa and other parts of the world although there have been a variety of pagans rights legal victories unfortunately anti-pagan prejudice harassment discrimination and defamation still happen lady liberty league or ll was founded in 1985 when uh pagans were regularly confronted with similar situations at work and in their communities it is essential to stand up to anti-pagan hate and attacks whenever and wherever they occurred most typically lady liberty league fields complaints related to child custody business zoning housing and job discrimination she added there's been a noticeable uptick in discrimination over the past four years the ll team is in the early stages of looking into this case she said they are concerned for the woman and for the greater community discrimination against pagans not only harms the individuals directly impacted in the case but pagan people and society as a whole as of friday the organization had not spoken to the woman or gotten a response either from their attempts to contact panera's corporate headquarters to talk about this case ll is chiefly interested in speaking with the company's diversity officers said the spokesperson for ll who added that she understands an unwillingness for a company to discuss particulars of a lawsuit that is in process and of course that's going to be the case she said it is our hope to be able to have a direct dialogue with panera bread at the corporate level about the importance of stopping and preventing discrimination against pagan workers we've had positive experiences with such conversations with other corporations and institutions we've contacted over the years so the lawyer for the woman at the center of this case uh not only filed a lawsuit but is seeking a trial by jury in a jury trial is something that's commonly sought in cases like this and other lawsuits as well so one of the things you know we don't know what actually happened this is all based on verbal statements that someone's i guarantee you to say well i heard her say this question is will she admit she said it or she's gonna say i never said that what are you talking about so we don't know what happened we weren't there okay however let's assume for a moment that it happened or even if it didn't happen this is actually a great teaching moment let's suppose that you're a boss you run a big company you've got a bunch of different locations they hire people there's local managers who run the local locations you're in charge of telling those managers how to behave one of the things that you would tell them is don't discuss religion at work why would you i mean i think i tell don't discuss politics even though politics isn't on the list of protected things there because what good does it do to discuss that stuff at work and i think all of us well i guess depends how many different workplaces you've been in i'm talking about going all the way back to i worked at the gas station i've worked at radio stations i i've worked at retail outlets i've i've done i've had all kinds of jobs over my life and i've worked places before there's like one or two people who want to talk politics or want to talk religion or want to no just shut up we're at work can't we just work you know and so the idea that a manager is going to ask a subordinate what religion are you that can't end well that question shouldn't be asked and if it got asked that's the problem the answer is not the problem the question is the problem so i think i would if i was running a company again hypothetically i was running a company i would put it right in the manual for training the managers and say by the way we want to run an inclusive and pleasant work environment so we're going to suggest to you that not only should you be aware of the fact that you can't discriminate based on race color religious sex or national origin but you know something don't even talk about stuff at work that could be divisive don't talk religion don't talk politics don't don't don't talk about that stuff if you guys are sitting around bored find something to do you're at work i've been working someplace before i had people who are subordinate to me and i walk in and they're sitting there doing nothing what are you guys doing oh there's nothing to do no there is something to do you're just not thinking hard enough because you're getting paid by the hour you need to be thinking i got nothing to do find something to do you know so i go i got a list of things you can do right now do this do this do this i read off a bunch of stuff they don't want to do but guess what it's their job do it you know so if you've got time to sit around and discuss politics or religion on the job you got too much time and you're not managing yourself very well so like i said i think the problem here is that they asked not that she answered but you know something i will admit if i'm in a workplace and i want my job i want to keep my job and my boss says to me steve what religion are you i would say i'd prefer not to discuss that thank you what are they going to do ask again press you on it threaten to fire you for not telling i mean you know i understand there's crazy bosses out there i understand but i think the first response should be i don't feel like discussing it thank you it's not appropriate and likewise and again i understand there's several different organizations to do this that go door to door knocking on doors to tell them where they're going when they die and um haven't seen one in a couple years but i can tell you about two years ago i had a couple of them wind up on my porch and um i said some things to them and they promised they'd never come back and they haven't so i think i'm on a list somewhere but i i you know you know me i'm genuinely a nice guy i love talking to people i answer questions i respond to comments i correspond with people i'm a nice guy but if a total stranger walks up to me where i live and wants to tell me things about how my life is wrong that's not going to end pleasantly let's put it that way so from religionnews.com davidsen thanks a lot heather green wrote it a pagan is suing panera bread company alleging religious discrimination we'll see what happens questions or comments put them below let's talk to you later bye-bye thank you for watching leto's law care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner you

Channel: Steve Lehto

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Keywords: lemon law, michigan lemon law, lemon law attorney, lemon law lawyer, http://www.lehtoslaw.com, steve lehto

Id: hO-6BSQJOfA

Length: 12min 54sec (774 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 15 2021