Atheist sues employer for wrongful termination.
Anybody who follows newspapers, Internet message-boards or Blogs is likely familiar with the recent trend among pharmacists to refuse to dispense birth control pills and emergency contraception to customers. They do so claiming (wrongly) that said medications are abortifascients and therefore violate their religious beliefs as pro-life Christians. Some chain stores such as Wal-Mart have refused to stock oral contraceptives and EC altogether. South Dakota permits pharmacists to refuse to dispense any medication if there is reason to believe it would be used to “destroy an unborn child”. That gives the pharmacist a great deal of latitude in determining what s/he believes a pregnant (or potentially pregnant) woman should take, and allows him/her to pass judgement on the intentions of the customer as well.
Naturally this trend spiraled once the grandstanding moralists began to feel their power. We now had to contend with physicians who refused to prescribe birth control, Muslim cab drivers who would not transport passengers who were carrying alcohol, and cashiers who wouldn’t scan pork products.
In an interesting turn of events an atheist in Lebanon, ME, is suing Wal-Mart claiming he was wrongfully fired last month for refusing to wear a Santa costume.
(Christopher) Nolan, 27, had worked at Wal-Mart for three years, most recently as a bicycle assembler.
n his complaint, Nolan said he thought it was a joke when he was asked Dec. 8 to fill in as the store Santa Claus at the Main Street Wal-Mart. He said his co-workers were laughing.
Nolan, who described himself as an atheist who doesn’t believe in Christmas, said he laughed as well and then declined. “I said, ‘Uh, no way,’ ” he said in an interview last month.
Nolan said he was surprised when his supervisor called him later to say that Nolan had an hour to change his mind. When Nolan again refused to don the Santa suit, he said, his boss brought him into his office and told him he was fired.
…..
Nolan’s lawyer, Chad Hansen of the firm Peter Thompson & Associates of Portland, said he sent the complaint to the Maine Human Rights Commission on Monday.
Under Maine law, people alleging discrimination must file a complaint with the commission before filing a lawsuit.
The commission will assign an investigator to look into Nolan’s allegation. The investigator will issue a report for the full commission, which will then vote rule on whether there are reasonable grounds to conclude that Nolan was discriminated against. It can take up to two years for the commission to decide if Nolan’s rights were violated.
So here is an atheist who refused to perform a requested job claiming it violated his lack of belief. That in and of itself is a unique twist.
This is also somewhat different than the above cited cases in that playing Santa wasn’t part of his routine duties. It may fall under the “other duties as assigned by a supervisor” clause that so often is tossed into wage-slaves’ job descriptions. But nonetheless it wasn’t one of his distinct job functions in the way that dispensing prescribed medications is for a pharmacist, scanning groceries is for a cashier, or transporting passengers is for a cab driver. Accordingly I can grant Mr. Nolan a bit more leeway in his situation than the others.
It will be worth watching the case to see how it works out, particularly considering the inherent bias against atheists in America.
Tags: Atheism, Employment/Workplace, Law/Legal
