Washington Watch

Religious rights
in the workplace
may get short
shrift this year.

JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent

ichard Foltin is an opti-
mist, but he's not naive.
Foltin, legislative direc-
tor for the American
Jewish Committee, knows the odds
are against passage of the Workplace
Religious Freedom Act (WFRA) in
this shortened, election-year session of
Congress.
Still, Foltin keeps plugging away at
a bill his organization considers impor-
tant, even if it's far below the radars of
most lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
He isn't alone.
His colleagues at the Orthodox
Union, Agudath Israel of America and
the American Jewish Congress, among
others, are investing heavily in passing
the measure.
All remain publicly upbeat, even
though almost no one really expects
the measure to pass this year, or
maybe even next.
Herein lies an interesting tale of
legislative realpolitik. More often than
not, advocating on behalf of serious
legislation — not the quickie resolu-
tions and statements that pandering
politicians love to pass — is a slow,
arduous process.
And the fight rarely proceeds in
straight lines; the arrival of each new leg-
islative session often sets back the effort.

Easy Sell?

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WFRA, which was introduced in the
Senate last September by Sen. John
Kerry (D-Mass.) and Sen. Sam
Brownback (R-Kan.) and is expected
to hit the House this week, should be
a relatively easy sell. It seeks a modest
remedy for a fairly common problem:
the conflict between work schedules
and the religious obligations of
employees.
Current law requires reasonable
accommodations for workers' religious

Shabbat Observers'
Claims Settled

ADAM DICKTER

Special to the Jewish News

New York
ears Roebuck's home product
repair division will pay more
than a half million dollars to settle
religious accommodation com-
plaints brought by Sabbath obser-
vant employees, New York
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer
announced last week.
The settlement requires the
Illinois-based retail giant to pro-
vide back pay and legal fees to five
plaintiffs; to pay $225,000 to the
American Law Institute to create a
training program on religious
accommodation, and provide
scholarships of about $12,000 for
10 Shabbat observers to attend
New York technical schools.
The company will also pay the
attorney general's office $100,000
for the cost of its investigation of
claims that it denied employment
to five Orthodox Jews and one
Seventh-day Adventist under the
rationale that Saturday was the
busiest day for repair work.
An audit of time records by
Spitzer's office determined that
Tuesday was the most active day
for appliance repair, he said.
A spokeswoman for Sears,
Peggy Palter, said the company
admitted no wrongdoing. "But we
certainly believe with this agree-

a

ment we are looking at an innova-
tive way to try to accommodate
individuals who observe Sabbath
on Saturday," she said.
Palter maintained that although
Saturday is the most requested day
for appliance repairs, the company
did not have enough technicians
to accommodate the requests.
"There is a difference between
looking at service actually done
and service requested," she said of
the attorney general's audit.
Other stipulations of the con-
sent decree include allowing
Shabbat observers to work
Sundays; offering binding arbitra-
tion to anyone else who claims
they were not accommodated by
Sears over the past three years and
offering training to Sears person-
nel in New York involved in hir-
ing and recruiting.
The director of the Orthodox
Union's Institute for Public
Affairs, Nathan Diament, said he
hoped the agreement would
prompt Congress to pass the
Workplace Religious Freedom ACt.
"[The] measure is designed to
address this very issue and ensure
that no religious American is faced
with choosing between career and
conscience." ❑

— This story first appeared in the
New York Jewish Week.

