Braun Drug Testing and Industrial Due Process

Yahoo news and Slate have coverage and commentary on an arbitration panel's decision to overturn the 50 game suspension of National League MVP Ryan Braun.  Braun had been suspended for testing positive for synthetic testosterone.  Braun--who maintains his innocence--with the MLB Players Association, fought the suspension on the grounds of the chain of custody provisions of nonadherence to the league's and players' Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.

Braun's urine sample had been collected on a Saturday night and not sent to the testing lab until Monday.

 Article X of the Joint Program, Integrity of the Specimen, lays out a very detailed process on how the testing process works. At Section V., it provides,

7. The Collector shall check the “FedEx” box in the section entitled “Specimen Bottles(s) Released to:” Absent unusual circumstances, the specimens should be sent by FedEx to the Laboratory on the same day they are collected. [Emphasis supplied].

Although the arbitration decision has not been published, by looking at Article X it's pretty clear where at least some of the battle lines were drawn.

The decision is stirring up dismay and controversy among baseball fans, but it stands as a good illustration of "industrial due process" and a good reminder for those of us in labor and employment law that there is no substitute for a close reading of a contract.

Lent, Catholicism, Religious Accommodations

Jesus goes into the desert for 40 days and 40 nights

It's Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, and I have been wondering about where the courts and agencies have come down on Catholic employees' requests for religious accommodations.  Lent has several days which are very important to Catholics: Ash Wednesday, Holy Thursday and Good Friday (additionally the feast days of St. Joseph and St. Patrick fall within Lent). Although these days are not holy days of obligation, Catholics have sincere beliefs about how to observe them. Is there much guidance regarding their requests to shift schedules to observe these days?  Additionally, Catholics are called to personal acts of penance during Lent. Is there any guidance for requests to accommodate these?

 I have been looking for some kind of guidance specifically tailored to Catholic employees, a kind of "how to" on seeking religious accommodation that would list all the ways a Catholic employee might want to be accommodated and case law and guidance on what results he might expect. If someone knows of something like this, please drop a comment or send me an email.  If someone is interested in creating one, please send me an email, I would love to work on that project.  In the meantime, I have spent a little time hunting around to compile a list of Catholic accommodation decisions:

Good Friday

 1. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) Compliance Manual states under Example 3 , "A Catholic employee requests a schedule change so that he can attend church services on Good Friday...[this and other] accommodation requests relate to a “religious” belief or practice within the meaning of Title VII."  Unfortunately, the guide does not cite a Catholic employee related case for this proposition, but it is probably referring to 2.

2. Edwin Cardona and Felipe Borrero v. U.S. Postal Service, EEOC Appeal Nos. 01882012, 01882013, via 1990-MAR Army Law. 53, *54 (Oct. 11, 1989). The Postal Service failed to reasonably accommodate the religious practices of Catholic employees where it allowed them to take only five hours of leave on Good Friday, while allowing Jewish employees to take a full day, "the agency's justification for the different treatment was based on its interpretation of Catholic cannon law, which did not require more than two hours of church attendance on Good Friday, and Jewish law, which forbade work on holy days. The EEOC held that an agency had no authority to interpret religious laws or evaluate the sincerity of an individual's religious practices in developing its policy on religious accommodation."

3. Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center (1973 Arbitration decision) via 48-DEC Disp. Resol. J. 54, 59 "the arbitrator upheld the hospital's right to discipline a Roman Catholic employee for refusing to work on Good Friday since church law did not prohibit an employee from working on that day. Citing the many church services that are held in the evening in that community to accommodate the religious needs of working people and the statement of the hospital's Roman Catholic chaplain that Catholics may work on Good Friday, the arbitrator concluded that the grievant's decision not to work that day was more a matter of religious preference as opposed to an obligation that warranted protection under the contract's nondiscrimination provision."

4. NLRB v. Sauk Valley Mfg. Co., Inc., 486 F.2d 1127, (C.A.9, 1973) The NLRB conducted an election on Holy Thursday and Good Friday, but the results were not overturned.

Holy Days of Obligation and Sabbath

5.  Pielech v. Massasoit Greyhound, Inc., 668 N.E.2d 1298 (Mass.,1996). This was a procedurally complicated case where two Catholic racetrack employees were not allowed to take off Christmas. The case decided under Massachusetts law rather than Title VII and that law was struck down as unconstitutional.

6. Salisbury v. Potter, 2010 WL 128642, (N.D.Ill., 2010).  A Postal employee whose practice was to attend mass on Saturday evenings did not suffer an adverse action when forced to work Saturdays because he had opportunity to attend on Sunday.

7. Felix v. Baxter Healthcare Corp., Not Reported in F.Supp.2d WL 3245368, (C.D.Cal., 2010) Employer attempted to accommodate employee's request to not work Sundays, but employee did not follow up on employer's suggestions.

Personal Actions

8. Wilson v. U.S. West Communications, 58 F.3d 1337 (8th Cir. 1995) Catholic employee opposed to abortion wore a button and a T-shirt with photographs of a fetus. Other employees complained, the employer told her to stop wearing the shirt, and when she refused it fired her. The court held that the plaintiff's religious beliefs did not require her to wear the button in front of other employees. For commentary see 22 Harv. J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 959, 979. 

9. Tiano v. Dillard Dep't Stores, 139 F.3d 679 (9th Cir. 1998) Catholic employee's religious pilgrimage to Medjugorje, Yugoslavia was a personal preference because the employee's Catholic faith did not require that the pilgrimage be made during the employer's busiest season.

10. Several resources state without citation that there is a case where an employee's "Old Catholic" belief that she had to keep her head covered at all times was held to be protected.

11. EEOC v. AFSCME, 937 F.Supp. 166 (N.D.N.Y.1996) A Catholic employee who opposed capital punishment and abortion but who had to pay agency fee to Union was reasonably accommodated by the Union allowing the Catholic employee to donate to a charity instead.

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Update: Thanks to Ann Kiernan for posting on and linking to this and to Jon Hyman for including it in his invaluable What I Read This Week post.

Expressing Milk Under Title VII and the PPACA

Marcia McCormick posted on Workplace Prof Blog today about a Texas sex discrimination case  EEOC v. Houston Funding that lost on summary judgement where the EEOC alleged that a discriminatee had been fired for asking to be able to pump breast-milk at work.  McCormick summarized the holding as follows:

   The district court judge held that even though discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions is a violation of Title VII, that once the employee gave birth, she had no more pregnancy-related conditions and that therefore firing someone on the basis of lactation or pumping breastmilk could not be sex discrimination, citing these other district court decisions in support: Puente v. Ridge, No. M-04.267, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 46624, at *1I-12 (S.D. Tex. July 6, 2005); Martinez v. NBC Inc., 49 F. Supp. 2d 305, 311 (S.D.N.Y. 1999); Jacobson v. Regent Assisted Living, Inc., No. CV-98-564-ST, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7680, at *30 (D. Or. Apr. 9, 1999; Wallace v. Pyro Mining Co., 789 F . Supp. 867, 869 (W.D. Ky. 1990).

Whether or not this summary judgement withstands an appeal, it probably won't have much of an effect on the workplace.  Little over a month after the alleged  discriminatee was fired, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law.  One of the buried provisions of the PPACA establishes the right of women to be given a space (other than a bathroom) to nurse or express milk. 

 

LaborRelated Artist of the Week: Turnpike Troubadours

This week's LaborRelated artist of the week is the Turnpike Troubadours.  I love the Folk-Country-Cajun-Bluegrass marinade that results in the unique sound of this Oklahoma band. In a Long Hot Summer Day, they apply their sound favorably to an old John Hartford song about life working on the Illinois River.  What's more, how can you not love a song whose refrain is about working hours?

"For every day I work on the Illinois River, I get a half day off with pay"

 "Towboat picking up barges, on a long, hot summer day"