Have faith.
Q. As we draw nearer to Christmas, and we’re planning whether to close the office or not between Christmas and New Year, it occurred to me that I’ve been getting more and more requests for time off to observe various other religious festivals. Do we have to grant these requests? I think it will be an administrative nightmare if everyone wants to take different days off for different religions.
A. There are a couple of issues here from a legal standpoint. Primarily, it is illegal to discriminate against anyone on the grounds of their religion or belief, so theoretically, if you allow Christians to take time off for their religious festivals, then you should do the same for any other religion.
You may say that you have to grant Bank Holidays and they happen to coincide with Christian festivals, but there is no statutory right to have bank holidays off as paid leave. Controversially, you could choose to offer your employees eight additional days off – whether paid or unpaid – to be taken as they wished. This would be an appropriate response to the increased diversity and wider needs of today’s workforce. And the exercise of this enhanced personal choice is only as difficult to administer as any holiday allowance.
Furthermore, even though religion or belief have greater protection under the law, such a process would enable even those with no religious convictions or, indeed, those wishing to observe pagan, pantheist, Zoroastrian, humanist or Jedi rituals to do so.
Humour aside, the need, as with all human resources practices, is for a fair and consistent approach. And, if you are receiving more and more requests of this sort, you do need to give some thought to the issue of how you are going to cater for the needs of a more diverse workforce. My suggestion may be a little controversial, but is something that more culturally diverse companies are already putting into place.
You might also bear in mind the additional benefits of informal recognition of a greater variety of religious festivals and what they can bring to your company. Having just returned from an in-house celebration of Diwali organised by Hindu employees, it reminded me of the great value that recognition of such festivals can bring. Sharing the typical food of that culture with your workmates over lunch provides an opportunity to learn more about and enhance understanding of each other’s cultures whilst engaging in some good old team building! Rather than viewing diversity as a potential nightmare, look on it as the advantage and benefit that it truly can be.
December 2005
FX Magazine