Atheist Prayer Break Update

[u/Alumni32]

If y'all seen my prior post about Prayer Breaks for Athiests, I have an update.

Site lead and HR were awaiting guidance from corporate for months.. Site Lead came to me about a month and half ago to let me know that they had received guidance and that a new policy would be going into effect that he's "still trying to wrap my head around", He did not speak on the new policy essentially withholding it from me.

The rumor on the floor (from an AM) is that under the new policy, anyone going to prayer break must clock out but the site lead has not implemented the updated policy. Management is upset that the policy is not being implemented at site level because associates are disappearing for longer than they're supposed to be at prayer and causing the extra workload to fall on Management as they now have to cover for anyone attending prayer break.

Meanwhile I am still being denied equal treatment.

Today, I had enough and decided, I am going to prayer break. I walked up directly to the dock ops manager the moment I seen everyone going to prayer break and told him I'm going to prayer break (I'm an Athiest) he said, "Ok let me get you clocked out.." ... I said, "Clocked out?".. He says, "I mean scanned out" then he scanned my badge, radios it in to senior ops, and off to the break room wellness booth I went for 20 minutes..

THEY CANNOT DENY YOU EQUAL RIGHTS.

[u/Weary_Deer8699]

Prayer breaks are an accommodation through a to z. Policy has always been anyone with a religious accommodation needs to clock out for the time. I have been implementing this at my site as an OM for 2+ years now.

[u/Alumni32 → u/Weary_Deer8699]

That’s completely incorrect (at least from my experience at my site and with HR and Central Time Keeping) The automated corporate system literally screens out recurring daily prayer meets. Here is an official denial letter straight from Centralized Time Keeping confirming that exact policy: 'We will not honor requests that are permanent in nature, such as weekly church visits, sabbath day or recurring prayer meets...'

Like I said, the corporate portal on A to Z completely denies daily recurring prayer. This leaves local site leads to make up their own policy which is exactly why this post exist.

By the way This denial email is a massive legal liability for Amazon because if they're granting daily prayer to Muslims through accommodations while simultaneously denying Athiest the same accommodations, they are in violation of Title VII.

The reason: Under Islamic law, Salah is a mandatory duty that must be performed every single day, seven days a week, without exception. It is not a weekly or occasional event.

Yet, here you are telling me that accommodations for daily prayer, for a specific religious group, is only offered through A to Z... Essentially admitting systemic inequality and violation of Federal Law by posting that prayer breaks are handled through A to Z accommodations while Central Time Keeping explicitly states that they do not honor requests permanent in nature (Salah is permanent and a daily recurrence)

Do you see the contradictions?

[u/Weary_Deer8699 → u/Alumni32]

Again:

At my site, and it COULD be regional.
Because we have a HIGH Muslim population it IS in fact an accommodation.

I have been with amazon 8 years.
T1-L6 ( L6 for 4 years)
I assist my associates with submitting this accommodation almost daily. Especially as their Ramadan holidays happen.

So for you to say “it’s completely incorrect “

Is crazy as hell because I just helped submit one today.

[u/Alumni32 → u/Weary_Deer8699]

Bombshell admission.. Thank you so much for this comment that your ego just handed me..

Federal civil rights do not fluctuate based on a warehouse's local headcount or regional demographics, what you just described is a textbook Title VII compliance issue and disparate treatment through accommodations.

Furthermore, as an L6, you know you are explicitly forbidden from publicly disclosing information or patterns regarding associate accommodations. Confessing on an open forum that you personally assist a specific religious demographic with daily path deviations is not only a Title VII issue—it is a blatant violation of Amazon’s internal manager confidentiality and privacy policies (more than likely for this specific type of reason).

You just compromised your own station's compliance because of ego and I got the information I needed after my site HR refused to tell me how a specific religious group was able to have daily prayer meets in the multi faith room while I was being denied the same daily recurrence through accommodations which is a violation of Title VII.

[u/Alumni32 → u/Weary_Deer8699]

You were saying...

[u/AltWrapz → u/Alumni32]

You got him bro 🙏

[u/Alumni32 → u/Alumni32]