Employers wary over Sabbath case
Aug 27, 2003

There is a warning to employers hiring weekend staff after a large payout to a Seventh Day Adventist who had to work Saturdays.
Carter Holt Harvey has agreed to pay the mill worker $40,000 in compensation for religious discrimination, in what the Human Rights Commission says is the biggest discrimination settlement ever.

Mill worker Richard Valentine struggled for two decades to keep Saturday his day of rest, in accordance with his Seventh Day Adventist faith.

His case was the first religious discrimination complaint to be sent to the Human Rights Tribunal.
Valentine was expected to organise cover or take annual leave when rostered to work Saturdays and was disciplined twice for not showing up to work on the Sabbath.

The mill's present owners, Carter Holt Harvey and Norske Skog, paid Valentine $40,000 compensation - admitting they had failed to accommodate his religious beliefs.

Robert Hesketh of the Human Rights Commission says the case will have a flow-on effect.
"That must have an implication for other employers, they must sit up and take notice."
Employers say the case will make them more aware of religious issues when hiring workers for seven day a week businesses.
But as Alisdair Thompson of the Employers and Manufacturers Association points out, it doesn't mean employers have to hire people who cannot work on holy days.

"You're not discriminating against them on the basis of religion you're just saying, 'well if you're not available to do the job I have advertised then so be it, I'll have to employ somebody else.'"

Employment lawyers say the case doesn't set a binding precedent as it was settlement by the two parties and not a formal tribunal ruling.
Valentine says that $40,000 is nothing to a multimillion dollar company - but believes the case sets a precedent for other religious beliefs.
Richard Valentine is now back at work at the mill on a set shift working Sunday through to Thursday.