'Devil Worshipper’ Retort May Burn Employer

November 9, 2009

Author: Christian Nolan

Source: Connecticut Law Tribune

http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?ID=35454

Like many people, Gina Uberti wanted to take time off from work for a religious holiday.

Unlike most Connecticut workers, her religion is Wicca, the largest of the neo-pagan, earth-based faiths. Wiccans worship multiple deities, use magic in their rituals, adhere to a basic code of morality, and hold four major seasonally based festivals.

Uberti attended one of those festivals last October. A dispute with a supervisor over that vacation has led to an unusual federal lawsuit.

Jarad M. Lucan, who practices employment law at Durant, Nichols, Houston, Hodgson, & Cortese-Costa in Bridgeport, is not involved with the case. But he said it should send a message to employers that, no matter how common or obscure the religion, if a worker sincerely believes it to be their religion, then employers must reasonably accommodate them under the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“You have to try to accommodate a sincerely held religious belief,” said Lucan, whose firm often represents employers in such workplace disputes.