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Back in July, I wrote about the ongoing controversy surrounding pharmacists’ right to refuse to dispense emergency contraception, such as Plan-B, because they felt it violated their religious beliefs. As I stated then, for me
“the real heart of this issue is can an employee refuse to carry out specific aspects of their job that they do not like?…While I don’t think anyone on either side of this issue is advocating that people perf
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Comments
01.06.09
Personally, I'm not one to argue someone's moral beliefs, whether or not I agree with them. In the case of abortion, while I'm pro-choice, I can respect a different opinion (even though I think it's completely 100% wrong). There is a big difference with a moral obligation (abortion) and being inconvenienced (working on the weekend.)
However, in a situation like this, I'm OK with a particular nurse / pharmacist not dispensing a particular medication, provided that they (a) clearly display that fact on the door or counter, or (b) have another employee who will. I don't care if Bob the born-again pharmacists won't give my wife her birth control, but I have a problem if no one else will, either.
01.06.09
Does this topic make anyone else think of business ethics?
Outside of religious beliefs, an employee's conscience can tell them right from wrong in the workplace, and yet sometimes they are still asked to do things by their superiors that are against their own moral code. If an employee refuses to do something asked of them based on ethics (a personal un-written code or even a written company manual), they may end up harming their job or career. To me, that is just such an awful predicament.
Refusal based on ethics (which should be followed by everyone, regardless of religious beliefs) should not have negative results. But even your standard ethical behavior can be tricky to navigate. And also, not everyone is fortunate enough to work for wholeheartedly ethical people.
01.06.09
Ethics is a slippery thing to define. So we really need to rely upon what is legal or not legal.
If an employer asks you to do something that is legal, but you feel is unethical, then you really have little choice. If your 'personal code' is against the act, then you either have to suck it up, try to infulence your employer, or quit. There is no legal recourse.
Some of the issues mention above involve religion, which is already covered under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Specifically, Title VII provides that an employer must reasonably accommodate an employee's religious beliefs and practices unless doing so would cause "undue hardship on the conduct of the employer's business." It's obvious that this would still usually require doctors to perform abortions and pharmisists to provide birth control (or the 'morning after pill') if the employer wants them to.
02.26.09
The answer to your question "Can an employee refuse to carry out specific aspects of their job if they don't like it?" is, obviously, yes, if it violates their religious convictions. And, they can do so legally—Scott M. is right. And it wasn't because they "didn't like it"—as you said, it was because it violated their religious convictions, which must come first for the believer (otherwise, why believe?). Diversity goes both ways, and "Equal Opportunity" is the law. The statement goes as thus: "Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, prohibits discrimination in hiring, promotion, discharge, pay, fringe benefits, job training, classification, referral, and other aspects of employment, on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and sexual harassment) or national origin. Religious discrimination includes failing to reasonably accommodate an employee's religious practices where the accommodation does not impose undue hardship." (Source: www.dol.gov/esa/ofccp/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/eeopost.pdf) And I know this for a fact personally, because I once simply could not create a project at my job due to my religious convictions. The job violated my beliefs and I had to take a stand, and while some in the office were shocked and disapproved, I was in no way reprimanded for my actions by the directors in the office, and was in fact, praised by my supervisor. And—just as a footnote, they got an outside vendor to it, and I was later vindicated (because I didn't take this lightly—God tells us to obey our "masters," but not if it conflicts with His will or teachings, so it was a tough call): the campaign failed miserably and backfired just as I had predicted causing great harm to others, rather than "help" as my leaders had hoped.
If someone just doesn't want to do their job out of laziness or inconvenience or discomfort or with no reasonable explanation for doing so, they technically "can" not do it, but then they risk being reprimanded or dismissed, and rightly so. You could not come in on a Sunday if your reasoning was because you observe church or religious services. But if it's out of spite, or out of inconvenience, then no, of course you can't compare the two. And no, a pharmacist does NOT have to distribute the morning after pill, even if the employer wants them to. The employer would be violating the law if he told them they HAD to or be dismissed (a "forced assist"), and the pharmacist would have a winning lawsuit.
02.27.09
Obama Moves to Undo ‘Conscience’ Rule for Health Workers
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/us/politics/28web-abort.html?_r=1&hp
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