USPS worker takes religious rights case to Supreme Court after forced to work Sundays
A postal worker is taking his religious rights case to the Supreme Court after he was forced to work on Sundays.
Lead counsel and Executive Director of the Church-State Council Alan Reinach joined The National Desk's Jan Jeffcoat Friday morning to discuss the issue.
The man is a rural postal carrier in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and was asked to work holidays and cover other shifts in order to have Sundays off. When he was hired, Sundays were not a part of the program because USPS didn't have the Amazon contract yet.
The USPS began delivering packages on Sunday and he was exempt from working but that quickly ended.
"The post office is uniquely committed to treating everybody exactly the same and never making any exceptions for anyone. So even though the postmaster could easily schedule around, Mr. Groff is not working on Sundays. Higher-ups insisted that they keep him on and when he would call off on Saturdays, that's when they ran into difficulty on occasion," Reinach said.
Reinach says Groff had to go through counseling and "progressive" discipline and was on the verge of being fired when he resigned in order not to have a termination on his federal employment record.
Since 1932, federal law has required that employers have to reasonably accommodate the religious beliefs and practices of their workers. But in 1977, the Supreme Court held that they are excused if the accommodation would cause even minimal hardship.
You can watch the full interview below:
