Greg Connolly is a member of the Church of God and believes that premarital sex and abortion are sinful. He works as a pharmacist for Wal-Mart, and at many times during the week, he is the only pharmacist available to fill prescriptions. One product sold at his Wal-Mart is the morning-after pill (RU 468). Based on his religious beliefs, he tells his employer that he will refuse to fill prescriptions for the morning-after pill. Must Wal-Mart make a reasonable accommodation to his religious beliefs? Explain it with what you learned from your reading and cite your sources.

Answer:

According to the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission), “an applicant or employee who seeks religious accommodation must make the employer aware both of the need for accommodation and that it is being requested due to a conflict between religion and work” (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, n.d.). As an employee at Walmart, Greg has the right to request for an accommodation to be made by Walmart. Since Walmart is a company that earns over 120 million in profit (for the last three years) (Nasdaq, 2017), I believe that they could afford to have another pharmacist on the same shift as Greg. Whether they have to hire another pharmacist for the same shift (which averages around $119,000 a year (Barket, 2016)) or move shifts around to accommodate Greg, I do not believe that this would cause undue hardship on Walmart. According to the EEOC, an undue hardship is considered one that is costly, decreases efficiency, or compromises safety (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, n.d.). As a result, I believe that Walmart is well within their legal rights to allow reasonable accommodation for Greg’s request.

References

Barket, A. (2016). 2016 Pharmacist salary guide. Retrieved from http://www.pharmacytimes.com/contributor/alex-barker-pharmd/2016/04/2016-pharmacist-salary-guide

Nasdaq. (2017). WMT Company financials. Retrieved from http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/wmt/financials?query=income-statement