Retail Apartheid?

[mushroom25]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2527820/Marks-Spencer-tells-Muslim-staff-CAN-refuse-serve-customers-buying-alcohol-pork.html

Good Idea?

[browntrout]

I thought supermarkets just had checkouts. some saying baskets only/ten items or less. I've never seen one saying no bacon/pork/alcohol whatever.

[dunnitall]

Would life be less traumatic if each lived in their own country, Muslims in Muslim countries, Christians in theirs etcetera ... Then ne'er the twain shall meet and in my opinion the best solution for harmonious living! If only......

[Zeuhl]

ellipsis

/a worker who has previously indicated their unwillingness to handle pork or alcohol may be asked and agree to serve on the grocery till/

where did you get that idea from?
have M&S confirmed that is their policy?

[jim360]

Segregation dunnitall? Doesn't work. Never has done, never will.

[dunnitall]

Why not Jim, if opposing sides never met then there's no problem at all? Yeh?

[Zeuhl]

/Christians in theirs etcetera/

I don't want this to be a 'Christian country'.
One lot of the blissfully delusioned are the ones most likely to pander to the others in the interests of 'inter-faith cooperation'

The sooner us without religion curb all this nonsense the sooner M&S can achieve their ideal of a 'secular environment'

[dunnitall]

Agree zeuhl, I'm not religious and prefer it that way but society wherever it is seems hell bent on religious connotations so us who may oppose it seem in the minority especially when the head of state is of a Religious persuasion.

[naomi24]

//The sooner us without religion curb all this nonsense the sooner M&S can achieve their ideal of a 'secular environment' //

All employers could make a start by saying ‘if you expect special concessions, don’t apply for the job because you won't get it’.

[dunnitall]

Agree Naomi, why apply for a job if you cannot fulfill the criteria...ie serve as you have to if it's in retail. Th mind biggles really, why want. Job in a place that sells things you religiously (or whatever) cannot abide by?

[dunnitall]

"Boggles"

[boxtops]

Ellipsis, that's not what M&S are saying. They say that if an employee doesn't want to handle certain products, they'll be placed in a role which doesn't expose them to it, e.g. a non-food till.

[Ellipsis]

> where did you get that idea from?

From the fact that it actually happened.

It may not be "policy" but that doesn't mean it can't happen. One mistake leads to another.

First mistake (by a manager): worker is asked to work on the grocery till (maybe because queues are long, and presumably forgetting that the worker shouldn't be asked to work there)

Second mistake (by the worker): worker agrees to work on the grocery till (presumably trying to be helpful, and hoping desperately that no customer will present pork or alcohol)

The outcome of these two mistakes, plus the "policy", is the ridiculous situation that a customer can be refused service to buy a legal product that the store chooses to sell and the customer chooses to buy.

This is an outcome of the policy. It may not BE the policy itself, but it is definitely an outcome of it.

[naomi24]

Boxy, well they shouldn't be saying that. If people can't do the same job as the rest of their colleagues, they should look elsewhere.

[jomifl]

Where in the Koran does it say that a muslim shouldn't handle glass or plastic?

[dunnitall]

Box tops. Doesn't want to? What on earth is someone doing working in a job that they don't want to sell certain products? Know it's not your.call but honestly....how we have to pander to certain people so as not to upset the faith. Jeez!

[mushroom25]

jomifl, the Koran makes very few statements about what muslims can or cannot do. in general these come from the hadith, which is (or are) pronouncements made by the prophet, and are as good as law.

[naomi24]

Time to say ‘no’.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7576357/Muslim-staff-escape-NHS-hygiene-rule.html

[Zeuhl]

^^
Agreed

we have just one Muslim employee (that i know of) who we employed 8 years ago with a clear understanding his religious practices would not interfere with work.

His praying is innocuous and flexible. If he does fast at Ramadan it isn't obvious.

Above all, the one thing that bothers him is the possibility that the religious fanatics his family thought they'd left behind in Iran might follow them here!

[AliceTickband]

Hypocrisy-this person will notserve alcohol but is accepting wages from the profits of it's sale.

[jomifl]

Mushroom, so the hadith is a sort of supplementary set of rules made up by mohammed to cover the areas neglected by allah. Not the word of god?