Comments on: Synagogue youth workers wage-hour suit

By: Hugo S. Cunningham

Hugo S. Cunningham — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:24:51 +0000

Jesse–

It depends how distinctively religious a worker’s job is.

Congregations have a free hand to discriminate in hiring a rabbi, and are free to fire him if they can’t reach an agreement on hours and conditions of work.

On the other hand, a garden-variety janitor in a church-owned hospital would be covered by the same labor and discrimination laws as janitors in other hospitals.

A youth worker sounds closer in religious significance to a rabbi than to a hospital janitor. The congregation may decide that being available for calls at odd hours is a distinctive responsibility of youth workers, a responsibility which negotiated pay should reflect.

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 19:02:38 +0000

They certainly should pay people fairly, but to be compliant with Jewish Law, you can’t ask a Jewish person to work on shabbat or Yom Tov, or pay him to work on those days.

But plenty of Jewish organizations have found creative ways around this, usually paying people for Sunday and giving them Mondays off.

By: Jesse Spurway

Jesse Spurway — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:38:46 +0000

Hugo, that does not give religious organizations a free do-anything-we-want card.

By: Hugo S. Cunningham

Hugo S. Cunningham — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 15:41:09 +0000

@ James–
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

By: James

James — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 06:03:58 +0000

Sorry, I stand corrected. That’s apparently what people are fighting about. Seems ridiculous to me. FLSA applies to state and local governments, but not churches? In what way does that make sense?

By: James

James — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 05:59:16 +0000

What exactly does the ministerial exception (an exception to anti-discrimination laws) have to do with the Fair Labor Standards Act and other hour and wage statutes? There’s no plausible argument that being a religious institution allows you to pay less than minimum wage or fail to pay overtime as required.

This seems like a pretty run-of-the-mill wage and hour dispute.