Hertz fires 25 Muslim drivers in break dispute

It is not that they cannot pray, but Hertz is not obligated to pay them while doing so. They have religious equality, but not a unfair benefit from their religion. Either everyone gets the same treatment or no one does. That's the law, people. Being treated equally is the opposite of discrimination.

all companys have rules and if you don't follow them then you are probably going to get fired. thats the bottom line.

Being a muslim I agree with HERTZ if clock out is all they wanted, I would have done exactly the same, my religion does not entitle me to demand for free money.

I am by no stretch of the imagination a conservative, but I have run more than one business in my time, and unless there's a major detail being left out, I see no reason why Hertz should be faulted for this incident.

They were not refusing to allow Muslim employees the right to stop to pray. It seems as though Hertz is not only willing to accommodate Muslim religious beliefs, but has already done so for other Muslim employees without discrimination.

In fact, it strikes me that's the whole point of terminating those twenty-five employees. Hertz didn't fire those twenty-five employees for praying. It fired them because they repeatedly violated the break policy and expected Hertz to essentially discriminate against all the other employees in the company by paying these individuals to do something no one else gets paid for.

To the extent I can, I try to respect everyone else's religious beliefs, but if I had an employee behaving the way these twenty-five did, their religious beliefs would never even enter my mind. Why they're violating the rules is irrelevant. That they've continued wantonly violating the rules when reasonable accommodations have been made for them is not.

I would, and have, terminated quite a few employees over the years for similar infractions.

To put it the way I do every time I have to let someone like that go: "I'm not firing you. You decided to quit your job when you decided to quit following the rules. I'm just here to inform you of your decision."

I agree with HERTZ 100 percent !

At my job, if you are late, you get written up. If you fail to clock out for breaks, you get written up. If you get written up three times, then you are fired. No excuses. If you can't follow the rules then you choose the consequences.

GOOD for HERTZ! You AGREED to the terms BEFORE you were HIRED!
STICK TO THEM!

Good goin hertz!! Nobody should get special treatment cause of religion. You keep giving special treatment cause of their religion and someone will eventually make up a religion to reap the benefits. "Oh my religion says I have to take 5 hour breaks sorry.." It would be insane things like that

I'm glad to see that Hertz has chosen to face possible discrimination claims than to cave in to political correctness and being blackmailed by their ex employees.

Simple nature of having a job; follow the rules or find another one. Good for Hertz.

I don't see the issue here. The company is not trying to interfere with them praying at all, they just don't want to pay their employees to pray. Is it really so much to ask that they clock out to do something personal? From what I understand of the religion they should have more than enough time to do what they need in 10 minutes so why abuse it?

Now that they don't have a job, they can pray as much as they want.

I usually rent from Dollar, but Hertz gets all of my business from this point forward...

I completely agree with Hertz. I really can't figure out what the muslims want except somehow by not agreeing to not getting paid when they are on break they want to be able to sue.

well I think I like herts more!

3-5 minutes 5 times a day, 3 times during work hours. 15 minutes a day, 5 days a week, 1:15 hours a week,= about 59 hours a year = a whole paycheck.

Good. They should not be given special treatment at work due to their religion. If they want to pray, do it during break times, or while at home.

Great job Hertz. Employers should make the rules and employees should quit if they don't like them. That is what democracy is all about. Let the Muslims start their own car rental business and then they can take as many prayer breaks as they want.

Being a Muslim, I greatly appreciate HERTZ for making this decision. I hope every company follows the suite. Islam never says you have to harm your employer to pray. Respect of the employer, the society, the neighbors, the government and everything in between and beyond is the true sprit of Islam. Allah(God) bless HERTZ , America and all those who want to do the right thing. Ameen.

We have religious freedom not religious rights, this kind of special expectations by religious groups causes many Americans to lose our rights and freedoms.