Religious Discrimination Lawsuit Filed Against Diocese Of Allentown

[1holycatholic]

Religious Discrimination Lawsuit Filed Against Diocese Of Allentown
ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The Diocese of Allentown has found itself the target of a lawsuit that claims a woman was fired for being a Muslim.

Omayma Arafa filed the federal lawsuit against the Diocese in May.
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[Holly3278]

I hope no actual discrimination really took place.

 

[puzzleannie]

as for the break time, if she worked the scheduled number of hours it is mandatory by law, unless they tried to force feed her there was no discrimination.

she makes two claims, one that she was replaced by an outside contracter, second that she was replaced my a younger non-Muslim male. Which is it?

she might have a point if she is a member of a class who is offered benefits and she was not, but right now that is her only case. All employees of a diocese are at will and can be fired at any time with or without cause.

 

[Dale_M]

as for the break time, if she worked the scheduled number of hours it is mandatory by law, unless they tried to force feed her there was no discrimination.

I am not sure that is true. It seems, at least in Pennsylvania, there is no obligation to provide an at-will worker a lunch break or even a rest break.
scaringilaw.com/Articles/At-Will-Employees-Are-Generally-Not-Entitled-to-a-Lunch-Break.shtml

she might have a point if she is a member of a class who is offered benefits and she was not, but right now that is her only case. All employees of a diocese are at will and can be fired at any time with or without cause.

It seems in Pennsylvania there are limits to that doctrine, and that religious discrimination is valid cause to sue for unlawful firing, even if an at-will employee.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has held that “an at-will employee has no cause of action against his employer for termination of the at-will relationship except where that termination threatens clear mandates of public policy.” Pipken v. Pennsylvania State Police, 548 Pa. 1, 5, 693 A.2d. 190, 191 (1997).

This is not to say that all at-will workers are without legal recourse if terminated from their employment. The Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, 43 Pa.C.SA. § 951 et seq., provides in part that it shall be unlawful discriminatory practice “for any employer because of race, color, religious creed, ancestry, age, sex, national origin or non-job related handicap or disability… to refuse to hire, employ or contract with, or to bar or to discharge from employment such individual or independent contractor, or to otherwise discriminate against such individual or independent contractor with respect to compensation, hire, tenure, terms, conditions or privileges of employment or contract, if the individual or independent contractor is the best able and most competent to perform the services required.”

wolfbaldwin.com/attorneys_lawyers/articles.asp?ArticleID=16&Page=termination_at_will_employee_PA_Pennsylvania.asp

 

[Phemie]

as for the break time, if she worked the scheduled number of hours it is mandatory by law, unless they tried to force feed her there was no discrimination.

she makes two claims, one that she was replaced by an outside contracter, second that she was replaced my a younger non-Muslim male. Which is it?

she might have a point if she is a member of a class who is offered benefits and she was not, but right now that is her only case. All employees of a diocese are at will and can be fired at any time with or without cause.

She says that when they let her go they told her it was because they could get an outside contractor for less than they were paying her. If they then turned around and actually** replaced** her with a younger non-Muslim male she had reason to figure her religion was the real cause of her dismissal, not cost. It probably wouldn’t have become a legal matter if they had actually hired an outside contractor.