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November 23, 2006
Never, never on a Sunday
Woman wins job back after refusing to work the Sabbath
DANA FIELDS
Associated Press
SAVANNAH, MO. -- Three years after she was fired for refusing to work on Sundays, a Missouri woman has won back her job at a small town's public library, and her employers have received a costly education in U.S. employment law.
No less a legal team than the Florida lawyers who represented the parents of Terri Schiavo -- the brain-damaged woman at the centre of last year's right-to-die case -- took up the cause of Connie Rehm, who sued the Rolling Hills Consolidated Library in Savannah, Mo., on a claim of religious discrimination. A jury ruled in her favour in May, and last month she was reinstated on a judge's order to the staff assistant job she had held for 12 years before her religious practice and the library's adoption of Sunday hours collided in 2003.
To Ms. Rehm, 54, the outcome of her case is a victory for any employee whose conviction against labouring on the Sabbath is tested by workplace demands.
"A middle American, mild-mannered, small-town library person -- I attribute to the Lord a great sense of humour for having picked me for this test," Ms. Rehm said from her home in Savannah, a town of 4,900.
Posted by Mohamed at November 23, 2006 02:26 PM