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October 29, 1999/19 Cheshvan 5760, Vol. 52, No.9
Local lawmakers, Jews less than enthusiastic about workplace bill
CHRIS GARIFO
Staff Writer
Some Arizona legislators and local Jewish leaders are reacting cautiously to the federal Workplace Religious Freedom Act, introduced Sept. 29 by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), saying that the proposed law protecting religious practice in the workplace actually could create more problems than it solves.
Under Senate Bill 1668, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would be amended to ensure that employees could take religious holidays off without fear that doing so might get them fired. It also would require that employers accommodate employees' religious needs in other ways, for example, by permitting them to wear certain garments during the day.
Although Jewish lobbyists have been fighting for such legislation for a decade, noting that observant Jews have been forced to work on Saturdays and High Holidays in places including Arizona, now some local leaders are expressing reluctance to embrace the federal law.
State Rep. Barbara Leff (R-Paradise Valley) suggested the legislation could be "a double-edged sword."
"When you try with good intentions to legislate what (people) can do, you're perhaps inadvertently taking away somebody else's rights," Leff, who is Jewish, said Tuesday night, Oct. 26, at the Jewish Community Relations Council's annual meeting.
"I don't believe employers should be told what to do with their employees," Leff said, adding that she believes the state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act should take care of any workplace religious-freedom issues in Arizona. (RFRA requires a "compelling state interest" for government to interfere in religious expression.)
Opposition to workplace religious freedom laws has traditionally come from employers who claim making special accommodation for people of various religions would impose an undue hardship on them.
Tom Gunn, executive director of the Arizona Small Business Association, said he hasn't seen the new legislation's text, but "I think we'd be opposed (to it)."
"Basically, an employer has the right to determine working hours here in Arizona because we have employment at will," he said.
Gunn said he knows "lots of employers who seek to accommodate their employees," but "it's up to each employer" to determine when their employees should be at work.
Senate Bill 1668 has been assigned to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and, according to Kerry's office, "is supported by Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh groups," including the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee.
Richard Foltin, AJC legislative director and attorney in Washington, D.C., told Jewish News that the legislation is simply an attempt to put teeth into a 1972 amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that, because of narrow interpretations by federal courts, has placed "little restraint on an employer's ability to refuse to provide religious accommodation."
"I think it's really a clarification of Congress' intention to prevent this kind of discrimination," said Foltin, chairman of the Coalition for Religious Freedom in the Workplace, comprising religious and civil-rights organizations that support the legislation.
Foltin said there are hundreds of reported cases of workplace discrimination that show the need for such legislation, which he maintained has wide support within the Jewish community.
But Rick Naimark, the new board chairman of the Phoenix JCRC, said he is unsure whether the problem is bad enough to warrant a federal law.
"I don't know how pervasive the problem is," he said. "The reality is, legislation usually comes from extreme cases (in which) people have done something that doesn't make sense. So, you have to ask how we can address that problem without stepping on the toes of the many who maybe don't really have that problem. ... There's also reasonable business practices (to be considered)."
Foltin acknowledged that "there are concerns that have been raised in the business community, many by those who just don't want another regulation, and many in the labor movement as well." Foltin said supporters of the measure are trying to work with them about those concerns but, "these kinds of objections have been raised with each piece of civil-rights legislation that's ever been introduced."
Naimark, meanwhile, agreed that "it's valuable to have the ability to not be infringed upon in the workplace," noting that sometimes workplace rules can be arbitrary and may curtail someone's religious observances unnecessarily.
Arizona House Speaker Jeff Groscost, who received a public-service award at the JCRC meeting, suggested that some employers probably could use a little prodding to ensure they take into consideration their employees' religious observances, "especially if they're different than their own."
"By and large," Groscost said, "the biggest problem is people don't mean to intentionally create problems; they may be just unaware of the different circumstances.
"I would approach it with a very open mind and if we think there's a problem, would probably be very supportive of trying to come up with an appropriate resolution."
Groscost said that, in the state House of Representatives, "We have tried to make sure that we are finished with our work on the days that other holidays are being observed, especially on Jewish holidays, not only by sundown, but with enough time prior to make sure people can observe those."
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