Tom and Katie work for a 24 hour seven day a week Kinkos in Orlando. They have the same educational and professional background. They are equal employees as far as skill and experience, and they were hired on the same day two years ago and are both up for assistant manager.
Katie is a Seventh Day Adventist, and she has been since she was born. She cannot work any Saturday. She disclosed this to her employer on her very first interview, and they have never had any problems working out the schedule.
Tom has recently joined a religion that is generally considered a cult. He wants to start taking off every Saturday for the next two months to complete the required initiation into his %u201CChurch%u201D.
Sheldon, the next most senior employee is an atheist, and he does not care when he works as long as he gets at least 40 hours and can get off in time to go pick up his autistic son Leonard by five o%u2019clock on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And every other Saturday, he takes him to a special medical appointment in Miami.
Penny is the next most senior employee. She is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but she is as competent as anyone else at performing the tasks required. Penny is a part time student with no significant personal responsibilities that affect her work schedule, other than school, and she can be counted on to come in when called for an emergency. The only time she has issues is when she has a final exam. Her exams are only given on Saturdays. Penny has an exam this Saturday.
Howard is the new guy. He is pretty good at the tasks that are required, but he cannot be trusted to be left alone yet, as he has been caught shirking his duties to play Mystic Warlords of Ka%u2019a.
Raj is the manager and he can work at any time during the week. Raj has to sort out the schedule for the next two weeks and he is not permitted to schedule overtime under company policy.
Make an outline of the employees and the potential legal issues related to each.
How should Raj handle the Saturday situation? What are the legal requirements of accommodation?
Do Katie and Tom have the same rights in this situation? Why, or why not? Provide legal justification.