You be the Judge

Summary of materials

The case under discussion appertains to religious discrimination in the workplace which is illegal under Title VII as provided for in the Civil Rights Act (1964) (Brown & Sukys, 2013). The plaintiff, Adjha Djarra is a young lady who has worked at McFaddy Burger Joint for eight months (McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2017). According to her manager, she is a smart, responsive, and admirable worker. However, during the Muslim month of Ramadan, Miss Djarra came to work donning a head scarf pursuant of her religious inclinations. For two weeks she repeated the same dress code until one of the fast food restaurant’s patron wrote a letter protesting against it citing Arab religious fanaticism (McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2017). It was upon this information that the manager and defendant in the case, Ralph Johnson, terminated her contract of employment. The manager defended actions against the employee underscoring that it was against the company’s policy to allow for head scarfs to be worn in the work place.

As provided in the background materials section, there are numerous cases where employers have been sued in courts of law of different forms of discrimination against their employees (Brown & Sukys, 2013). Title VII provides protects for employees in instances where the firm has capacity to offer reasonable accommodation based on worker’s religious beliefs without resulting in undue hardship for such an employee. The fast food joint’s actions significantly affected the employee’s well-being compelling her to wait for some weeks before she could get another employment opportunity (McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2017). Upon listening to the arguments brought forth by the plaintiff and defendant, the judge ruled in Miss Djarra’s favor awarding her damages for the weeks out of work and requesting that the defendant gave her back her position at the restaurant (McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2017).

Descriptive Summary of Issues Raised by both Parties

The issues raised by the plaintiff revolve about religious discrimination. Miss Djarra categorically points out that it was not that the entity was biased against a particular religion but that some customers openly objected to it (McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2017). To support this notion, she notes that the company would have dismissed her from the job immediately she began wearing the head scarf but instead waited for two weeks before enacting summary dismissal..

On November 6 that year, the Ramadan month began which required her to don a head scarf (McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2017). The plaintiff makes it clear that she offered an explanation to the manager for wearing a head scarf in the workplace. She also made sure that it matched the company’s official dress code colors. In the beginning, her superior did not exhibit any misgiving about it though comments from regular customers quickly made Mr. Johnson uncomfortable with the situation. He therefore suggested that Miss Djarra desists from wearing it and instead don the visor (McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2017). He rejected the possibility of the visor being worn on top of the headscarf. The defendant asked her not to come to work wearing it the following day, the 19^th November but she still came to work with it resulting in her dismissal (McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2017).

In his defense, Mr. Johnson provided that wearing a head scarf to work contravened company policy (McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2017). He gave the plaintiff a couple of weeks but she declined to comply. The judge questioned both of them to understand the brevity of comments raised by the customer. The manager determined that such threat translated to a safety threat to the establishment and its employee while the plaintiff simply considered them as acts of ignorance. The only accommodation availed to Miss Djarra included taking the entire month of Ramadan off without pay.

Verdict and Opinions

Based on the information that McFaddy’s Burger Joint bears more than 15 workers its employee/employer relations fall under the jurisdiction of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The company is therefore obligated to abide by the rules as well as regulations stipulated by the commission. This case is similar to the Carter v. Bruce Oakley, Inc F. Supp 673 (E.D. Ark. 1993) case where the plaintiff was dismissed from a job for adhering to religious beliefs (Brown & Sukys, 2013). The employer who was the defendant in the suit ascribed to a policy which prohibited the wearing of beards. In its defense, the company stated that it did not believe that the plaintiff was keen on following Judaism and the beard also posed a safety risk (Brown & Sukys, 2013). Upon perusing through the evidence, the court ruled that the beard could not be considered a risk in the workplace and that the employer was obligated to avail reasonable accommodation to the employee. In the case under discussion, the plaintiff was also clearly fired for legitimately acknowledged religious beliefs (Brown & Sukys, 2013). Conversely, the defendant provided that Miss Djarra was an astute worker with no other errs to justify sacking. Though the plaintiff offered sufficient notice to the manager concerning her allegiance to the Muslim faith, he failed to offer any suitable accommodation to her.

The judge presiding over this particular case similarly held the opinion that it was in the plaintiff’s right to practice according to her faith given that it did not affect the firms operations. The company’s policy also failed to categorically denounce wearing of a headscarf in the workplace. I agree with the judge’s degree of leniency in awarding Miss Djarra damages for days lost as well as reinstating her to the previous workplace.

Reference

Brown, G. W. & Sukys, P. A. (2013). Business Law with UCC Applications, 13/e. New York City, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

McGraw-Hill Higher Education. (2017). Religious discrimination: Dress code flips burger joint. [Video file]. Retrieved from (McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2017)http://highered.mheducation.com/sites/0073524956/student_view0/you_be_the_judge.html