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Florida Hotal Dishwasher Awarded $21M After Being Forced To Work Sundays

Shad

Veteran Member
Did anyone see this a few months back? What are your thoughts?
I think it is a growing problem where people can sue for anything and win.

A Florida woman was awarded $21.5 million after a jury found that the Miami hotel that employed her did not honor her religious beliefs by continuously scheduling her for Sunday work and then firing her.

Florida Hotel Dishwasher Awarded $21M After Being Forced To Work Sundays

There is a cap on punitive damage in FL. She never got 21 million. She got 36k for lost wages. Pain and suffering was 500k. Punitive damages are capped at 500k

She had a valid case.
 

ImmortalFlame

Woke gremlin
Did anyone see this a few months back? What are your thoughts?
I think it is a growing problem where people can sue for anything and win.

A Florida woman was awarded $21.5 million after a jury found that the Miami hotel that employed her did not honor her religious beliefs by continuously scheduling her for Sunday work and then firing her.

Florida Hotel Dishwasher Awarded $21M After Being Forced To Work Sundays
From what little information I can glean from the article, it sounds like she had an agreement with the employer beforehand that she wouldn't have to work Sundays, so for the employer to terminate her for not working on those days may have constituted a breach of contract.

It does sound like a bit of a high pay-out, but the lady will only see around 500k of it due to punitive damage caps. Not sure this is the best example of people "suing for anything".
 

We Never Know

No Slack
There is a cap on punitive damage in FL. She never got 21 million. She got 36k for lost wages. Pain and suffering was 500k. Punitive damages are capped at 500k

She had a valid case.

I agree they messed up firing her.
The gist of it is if you don't want to work Saturday or Sunday, which ever day your religion sees as the sabbath/holy day, claim it's against your religion and make a non-believer work instead :rolleyes:.
In life there are many things people won't want to do but will have to do.
 

Shad

Veteran Member
I agree they messed up firing her.
The gist of it is if you don't want to work Saturday or Sunday, which ever day your religion sees as the sabbath/holy day, claim it's against your religion and make a non-believer work instead :rolleyes:.
In life there are many things people won't want to do but will have to do.

I have little issues with religious accommodations that is agreeable to the employer and employee. This seems like the case. Likewise I have little issues with an employer during down an application as the religious accommodation isn't practical.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
Did anyone see this a few months back? What are your thoughts?
I think it is a growing problem where people can sue for anything and win.

A Florida woman was awarded $21.5 million after a jury found that the Miami hotel that employed her did not honor her religious beliefs by continuously scheduling her for Sunday work and then firing her.

Florida Hotel Dishwasher Awarded $21M After Being Forced To Work Sundays
Juries are dangerous.
Random people picked to exorcise all their personal demons & shortcomings by judging others.
This a recipe for random extreme injustice.
 

columbus

yawn <ignore> yawn
I agree they messed up firing her.
The gist of it is if you don't want to work Saturday or Sunday, which ever day your religion sees as the sabbath/holy day, claim it's against your religion and make a non-believer work instead :rolleyes:.
In life there are many things people won't want to do but will have to do.
There's a big difference between making an agreement about a Sabbath before the job offer and acceptance.
My partner works for restaurants, and applicants sometimes say "I don't want this job if you'll schedule me on Sunday". The problem is rarely someone saying , "I just changed my religious beliefs, I won't be coming in on Sunday." Like, I've never heard of that happening.
The problem is virtually always the employer agreeing to something, then finding the agreement inconvenient. Or a new manager not feeling bound by a verbal agreement their predecessor made. That sort of thing is usually where the problem lies. Not with the employees.
Tom
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
I agree they messed up firing her.
The gist of it is if you don't want to work Saturday or Sunday, which ever day your religion sees as the sabbath/holy day, claim it's against your religion and make a non-believer work instead :rolleyes:.
In life there are many things people won't want to do but will have to do.
Or hire a person that can work those days. It can be a valid job requirement that people need to be available to work any day of the week. If a person has a religious belief that says the can't work Tuesdays then don't hire that person. That is not religious discrimination since that rule applies to anyone that would be that person trying to inflict their religious beliefs upon others.

The problem was that when they hired her she clearly stated that she could not work Sundays and that was fine for the first several years. They tried to change that after three years but she held firm and the company went back to their original agreement. Six years later they tried it once again and fired her. That was clearly the company trying to change policy in an illegal fashion. I am betting that there may have been ulterior motives. Dishwashers do not tend to hang around at jobs too long and she may have been getting near to qualifying for a pension or some other perk that was going to cost the business down the line.
 

We Never Know

No Slack
Or hire a person that can work those days. It can be a valid job requirement that people need to be available to work any day of the week. If a person has a religious belief that says the can't work Tuesdays then don't hire that person. That is not religious discrimination since that rule applies to anyone that would be that person trying to inflict their religious beliefs upon others.

The problem was that when they hired her she clearly stated that she could not work Sundays and that was fine for the first several years. They tried to change that after three years but she held firm and the company went back to their original agreement. Six years later they tried it once again and fired her. That was clearly the company trying to change policy in an illegal fashion. I am betting that there may have been ulterior motives. Dishwashers do not tend to hang around at jobs too long and she may have been getting near to qualifying for a pension or some other perk that was going to cost the business down the line.

Again I agree firing her was a mistake because you can’t discriminate when someone has a religious belief. I wonder how many people have been turned down from a job/position because of a religious belief or lack of a religious belief.
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
Or hire a person that can work those days. It can be a valid job requirement that people need to be available to work any day of the week. If a person has a religious belief that says the can't work Tuesdays then don't hire that person. That is not religious discrimination since that rule applies to anyone that would be that person trying to inflict their religious beliefs upon others.
It's not discrimination, but it is a breech of agreement if they had worked out prior to her being hired that she wouldn't work on Sundays, and it appears they fired her for not doing what they agreed she wouldn't have to do.
 

PureX

Veteran Member
Did anyone see this a few months back? What are your thoughts?
I think it is a growing problem where people can sue for anything and win.

A Florida woman was awarded $21.5 million after a jury found that the Miami hotel that employed her did not honor her religious beliefs by continuously scheduling her for Sunday work and then firing her.

Florida Hotel Dishwasher Awarded $21M After Being Forced To Work Sundays
How dare she demand a day off! That selfish B***! Choosing God over her employer's profits!
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
There is a cap on punitive damage in FL. She never got 21 million. She got 36k for lost wages. Pain and suffering was 500k. Punitive damages are capped at 500k

She had a valid case.
Good for her. It's about time for fighting for this type of crap that goes on these days.

Smart too givin she made sure it was stipulated in writing prior to hiring her from what I gathered.

Moral of the story. Put things in writing before you sign the dotted line.
 

lewisnotmiller

Grand Hat
Staff member
Premium Member
Juries are dangerous.
Random people picked to exorcise all their personal demons & shortcomings by judging others.
This a recipe for random extreme injustice.

This is tangential/out of ignorance, but I would have thought juries fitted well with libertarian philosophies?
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
This is tangential/out of ignorance, but I would have thought juries fitted well with libertarian philosophies?
Juries limit government's power over us.
But jurors are a random collection of all human traits.
This makes court dangerous.
Libertarian philosophies are dangerous....all that liberty can be misused.
But I prefer that danger to the one posed by a powerful government
which gives us security, & order....24/7/365 watching & controlling us.
 

PureX

Veteran Member
Juries limit government's power over us.
But jurors are a random collection of all human traits.
This makes court dangerous.
Libertarian philosophies are dangerous....all that liberty can be misused.
But I prefer that danger to the one posed by a powerful government
which gives us security, & order....24/7/365 watching & controlling us.
Fortunately, these are not our only options. As the purpose of government could be to protect us from each other, (and occasionally from ourselves,) while allowing for equal freedom, equal justice, and equal opportunity for all.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
Fortunately, these are not our only options. As the purpose of government could be to protect us from each other, (and occasionally from ourselves,) while allowing for equal freedom, equal justice, and equal opportunity for all.
The issue is how much of what kind of power we give government to achieve this.
You & I might disagree on this.
 
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PureX

Veteran Member
Your posts suggest that you'd favor a government far more powerful than would appeal to libertarians.
I favor a government that has the power of our collective assent, to do what we as individuals are unable to do. That is to protect us each from other people's desire to use, abuse, and otherwise exploit us for their own advantage, and to protect others from our own desire to use, abuse, and otherwise exploit them. And to do so with as little imposition as is effectively possible.

That means NONE OF US will like that government. Because nearly ALL OF US want to use, abuse, and otherwise exploit others for our own gain in some ways and at some times in our lives. And when that happens, our collectively authorized government would step in and stop us, and we aren't going to like that. Not one bit. The idea that we are supposed to like our government, or that our government is supposed to carry out OUR desires, beliefs, agendas, or whatever, is what is destroying our current version of human civilization. Because it's slowly and steadily rendering our governments corrupt and ineffective at what we need our governments to be doing for us as a human collective, right now. Each time we go to the voting booth and vote for whatever candidate promises to do whatever WE WANT, regardless of how it effects someone else, we are voting for the destruction of our collective well-being for the sake of our own selfish desires. And we get the corrupt, biased, ignorant politicians that we vote for as our society continues to fall further and further into the abyss of anarchy and bully-boy rule.

The bottom line is that it's our own individual selfishness that is killing us as a collective species, and there are too many of us living in a far too close and inter-dependent culture to accommodate all that ignorance and selfishness. We need to grow up, and soon, or we're going to suffer a huge calamity. Maybe one so big that it will end us as a species.
 
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