Holiday on reildious festival?

naz101

Hi guys,

Im just looking for some advice and I know this is a bit of a tricky question. Someone I know works in a day care centre for the ethnic minority, as part of a larger multicultural centre.

She and a few other staff members have asked for a day off for Eid (out of their own holidays) but have now been told that they can never have a day off for Eid. Their centre would not shut for the day as they will have enough staff to deal with any members who turn up (which wont be a lot).

The problem is the overall manager has recently said that they can never have a day off, because if they start asking for time off then the "jews" and "indians" will also ask for time off for their festivals.

The manager rudely suggested that if people want a day off for eid then they need to work on christmas which is something that the members of staff in question have already suggested but got told that was a stupid suggestion.

My question is : is there any way of getting around this? The person in question has a young family and wants to spend time with them on Eid and is very upset about this.:(

Thanks very much

scheming_gypsy

There was a thread on it, on the jobs board. The basics are that if you can give the time off but won't then you could be discriminating against the person, but if you can't give the time off because the staff are needed then you don't have to give it off.

naz101

ah thanks loads for the reply.

The problem is the manager states that the centre cant run on 2 members of staff...but thats the number of staff that is usually there anyway when a lot more customers / members are there.

There is usually like a 10:1 or 15:1 member to staff ratio. on these days there will be a 2:1 or max 3:1 member to staff ratio.

I will try looking it up on the jobs website. just in case I cant find it are there any websites or references she can use?

Thank you so much for the quick reply. I was getting really upset for her!

Dave_C_2

What does it say on the contract of employment?

naz101

hi, there is nothing mentioned in the contract at all

Dave_C_2

IANAL, assuming that the contract does not restrict the dates that holidays are taken and your friend has given reasonable advance warning, then she should be OK.

Unless there was a published company policy on this the manager is out of order making this rule up on the fly. Perhaps a working compromise can be reached, say half the folk work in the morning, half in the afternoon.

May I also suggest speaking to your local CAB.

Dave

scheming_gypsy

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=eid+toy+shop+holiday&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

top link then page 8 and 9 Indirect Discrimination 3.4 / 3.5

naz101

thanks scheming_gypsy.
Thats the guidance I found earlier too. But thanks for the reassurance that its the right document.

Dave_C, thanks so much for the suggestion. But unfortunately they dont allow half days either, even though thats not in the contract either.....

I think I will give CAB a call on her behalf on monday. She is quite shy and thinks she has to give in...:(