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| Witchvox Chapter: Wren's Nest News | Chapter Page Views: 54,877,966 |
 'Devil Worshipper’ Retort May Burn Employer Author: Christian Nolan Source: Connecticut Law Tribune Title: 'DEVIL WORSHIPPER’ RETORT MAY BURN EMPLOYER Like many people, Gina Uberti wanted to take time off from work for a religious holiday. Unlike most Connecticut workers, her religion is Wicca, the largest of the neo-pagan, earth-based faiths. Wiccans worship multiple deities, use magic in their rituals, adhere to a basic code of morality, and hold four major seasonally based festivals. Uberti attended one of those festivals last October. A dispute with a supervisor over that vacation has led to an unusual federal lawsuit. Jarad M. Lucan, who practices employment law at Durant, Nichols, Houston, Hodgson, and Cortese-Costa in Bridgeport, is not involved with the case. But he said it should send a message to employers that, no matter how common or obscure the religion, if a worker sincerely believes it to be their religion, then employers must reasonably accommodate them under the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964. “You have to try to accommodate a sincerely held religious belief,” said Lucan, whose firm often represents employers in such workplace disputes. | |
| Community Thoughts: There are 15 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| Boycott | Nov 11th. at 12:38:04 pm EST |
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Hadriana (Rome, Georgia) - Email Me I am in agreement - it is boycott time - and also, I think we need to write them and let them know we are out there and how we feel about this. There's all sorts of pagans making bath and body products that I should support instead of big ol' intolerant company. |
| Two Things | Nov 10th. at 6:49:55 pm EST |
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R. Cicero (Seattle, Washington) - Email Me First of all, let's boycott Bath & Body Works. If the company backs away and reinstates her, or otherwise compensates her (or fires that assholish supervisor) , then we can call it off. But until then, or from here on out, it helps to save your receipts of purchase from other retailers, make a photocopy, black out your personal info (debit/credit #, name, etc.) , and then mail it to their corporate office. Secondly, if her friends and witch compatriots would be so kind as to suggest or help her find new work, provide hugs and support, maybe bake her some muffins, etc., it would be greatly appreciated. This will be a long hard struggle with an uncertain outcome, at best. |
| It Seems To Me | Nov 10th. at 4:49:50 pm EST |
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Ursyl (Murrysville, Pennsylvania) - Email Me that if the employee is following the vacation policy properly and has requested a certain week and been approved for same, that it is none of the supervisor's business where the employee went or why. It also seems to me that if the same employee has been exemplary and all that, that firing her for taking a legal and allowed vacation is sh*tty in the extreme. Add me to the growing list of folks who think that this should bite that supervisor in the arse, hard. She should be the one losing her job and having her career trashed as her reward for trying to inflict that onto this employee just because her religion is different and non-Abrahamic. |
| On That Starbucks Case... | Nov 10th. at 12:34:17 pm EST |
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Marialyse (Anoka, Minnesota) - Email Me I looked up the case, and it seems that the necklace in question is referred to as " a "Wiccan cross," a "medallion," and a "pentacle"". |
| Too Far Both Ways | Nov 10th. at 9:21:44 am EST |
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Laura C. (Weston, Florida) - Email Me There's idiocy on both sides, here. The manager was disrespectful. Uberti couldn't be satisfied with ONE day off for a local ritual on Samhain and insisted on a WEEK to go to Salem--as if it were our Mecca or something. Most of us have never been to Salem, and I'm sure a lot of Wiccans see no reason to go at all, much less EVERY SINGLE SAMHAIN. I'm sorry, but I just can't feel much sympathy for either side in this case. |
| This Kind Of Thing... | Nov 10th. at 8:31:59 am EST |
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bigcat (peoria, Illinois) - Email Me While certainly not acceptable, is certainly not new. And the reasons for being terminated by a particular boss can be as trumped up as possible. No doubt the reasons were that she was "absent too many times" or "Poor performance" or even "Poor hygiene"-never mind that her past records up to that point were exemplary before. Usually they are ambiguous enough to defy description, but not enough to keep one from being terminated. The clearest indication- and the real reason that her job was down the tubes was in the remark made. " I don't want a devil-worshipper on my team." I sincerely hope that they do get burned and badly. I was thinking about going to a Bath & Body Works shop to buy something, but after hearing this, I won't. I wonder what his take on this situation would be if he knew that perhaps among the myriad customers that company serves there may be any number of "devil-worshippers" that use those products. |
| GOOD! | Nov 10th. at 5:37:59 am EST |
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Whitewolf (Schenectady, New York) - Email Me I hope it burns them REALLY good.... there was NO need for her supervisor to make such a comment. This is nothing but fundieism at it's worst..... I hope she wins and then some! Love to all |
| Some People Are Just Cornholios.... | Nov 10th. at 1:35:44 am EST |
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nasionnaich (Stanchfield, Minnesota) - Email Me So the company, "Bath & Body Works", was in the process of re-tooling the "look" of their products during the week of 31 October 2008, and the Regional Sales Manager thought that nobody should have been allowed to take any time off during that specific week. I cannot help but wonder if there would have been a problem with someone taking time off to attend a funeral, or for medical reasons. Or perhaps for a Jewish, Christian or semi-quasi-Christian religious event. Probably not...but it seems this "new" regional manager would likely have had a problem with it no matter the "excuse" given. However, her comment -- the one about not having a "devil-worshipper" on her team -- serves to show her very bigoted views concerning religious choice. Fine, she's entitled to her opinions, but she did cross the line with that comment. And even though she is not the only "Christian" to have those opinions, she is hardly representative of ALL people who claim to be Christian. To lump ALL those who pray to the Christian God as being "evil, intolerant hypocrites" is to lower one's self to the level of the truly evil, intolerant hypocrites who "just happen" to deliberately spread lies and mis-information about Paganism and Wicca, Gays and Lesbians, and anything those true hypocrites just "happen" to not agree with. The argument has been posited by many of those hypocrites that people like Gina Uberti don't really believe Wicca (or whatever Pagan, etc religion) to be their REAL religion. I truly hope Gina Uberti wins this case, and opens the collective eyes of all who claim to adhere to -- yet willfully ignore -- ALL of the teachings and Commandments of their Messiah, Jesus. Hey, if a legal argument can be used to discredit a Pagan/Wiccan's belief in their own religion, then it can also be used to discredit the insincere beliefs of a hypocritical "Christian". And if Gina Uberti loses...well, maybe I'll start a company of my own and hire all the hypocritical so-called "Christians" I can find (but ONLY the hypocritical ones) -- and then find legal ways to summarily fire them all for "poor job performance". Yeah, that sounds good to me. --nasionnaich |
| "Wiccan Cross" (answer For Nicole) | Nov 9th. at 11:29:40 pm EST |
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Tokkar - wtb [Sanity] (Oakland, California) - Email Me - Web I'm thinking that the "Wiccan Cross" is probably the Bride's Cross. Here's a picture: [Web LINK] At least, this is the only thing that I can personally think of in that regard. Blessings. |
| ... | Nov 9th. at 10:01:21 pm EST |
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Draken (Bronx, New York) - Email Me - Web Ahh, the "loving and tolerant" xians strike again. |
| Importance Of This Litigation | Nov 9th. at 9:31:31 pm EST |
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Terry (Irvington, Virginia) - Email Me This type of report, in legal journals designed to make corporate lawyers and HR managers aware of issues they're obligated to handle legally, is an important reason for those with standing to file such cases to do so, even when the personal direct benefits can be minimal compared to the hurdles involved in pursuing legal remedies. In most cases, employers from corporate chains try to at least minimally follow the law, but aren't as likely to do so if staff aren't aware of the specifics of what that requires. There's another interesting distinction in interpretation of details this article failed to include, in noting several related caveats. It's clearly a violation of law to harass or fire an employee for the reasons that appear present here, noting there may be more that's not public. However, it wouldn't be a religious discrimination issue to fire or severely discipline the manager involved. She maliciously and recklessly appears to have engaged in willful illegal conduct, as well as violated company policies to obey the law. That's generally grounds for firing, denial of unemployment comp (in CT and many other states) , and limits on what medical benefits might be retained under COBRA or subsidized via ARRA. Her actions, even if motivated by religion as appears likely, enjoy zero legal protections under civil rights law that defines how she acted as banned. |
| What The Heck Is... | Nov 9th. at 5:56:21 pm EST |
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Nicole (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) - Email Me ... a Wiccan cross? An equi-armed cross? An ankh? A pentacle? |
| Twistin In The Wind | Nov 9th. at 3:24:16 pm EST |
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Sphinxring (Olympia, Washington) - Email Me Sounds like the lawyer quoted thinks the employer is screwed... |
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