Workin' 9 to 5, what a way to make a living ....
Even if he only requires another twenty minutes, well, he either does that in the same breaks that everyone else gets, or he can get stuffed and the company will hire someone who is 20 minutes more productuve than that guy.
But what prevents him from, as I pointed out in my own work experiences, giving it back at the end of the day?
We used to have an expression: "9 to 5" (it became a song) which described the "normal" workday. In reality, a proper 8-hour workday is about 8:30 to 5:00, by the laws of most US states, for instance. However, I worked from 7:00 until 3:30, getting officially paid for 7.75 hours of work.
If it wasn't for the fact that I needed to be in the office at 7:00, nobody would have cared when I came in, as long as I put in my 7.75.
That's what I don't get about it. Respecting business hours (the office locked its doors at 7:00 pm), if I could fit my 7.75 into the day, then however I did it was fine. Except, of course, that my job needed me in at 7:00 and no later. The guy at the desk next to me? His job didn't need him in until 8:00. On the other hand, because other parts of his department were functioning at 7:00, it didn't matter when he came in as long as he got his 7.75 without violating labor law by skipping breaks.
If the Muslim can't fit his prayers into the accepted pattern of his workplace, he can try to change his hours to reflect those intermediate needs. To go straight to the point of dismissal for praying seems more than a little hasty.
If he is getting any more time off than the others, then every oher worker has the right to say "I want that extra 20 minutes off too", and one of them might say "Well, my religion says I get four hours off in the middle of the day", and pretty soon all of them want those four hours free in the middle of the work day. It doesn't work. As for letting the guy work later, after closing time; yes, it depends on the business, but allowing that can cost time and money again, as the company must keep its doors open, maybe run expensive machines longer, maybe keep the security guards on longer...
If it depends on the business, don't you think the business owner ought to show that as his reason? Why would the security guards have to stay any longer? At the end of the business day do they go home? (In the US, the guards are there to guard the building. There's a day crew that's heavier and attends to the regular business hours of the facility, and there's a night crew which attends to the cleaning staff, anyone working late, and generally protects the building overnight.
As to the four-hour thing ... come on ... don't those examples get a little ridiculous? We just make Rosh Hashannah jokes in the US.
But I've watched Muslims go through Ramadan ... that taxes an employer.
When we get right down to it, it's about the choices people make. The choice to be Muslim, the choice to be in the armed services, the choice to raise children. In the US, the National Guard frequently runs TV ads reminding employers of the importance of allowing their employees who are in the Guard time for training. In the US, we have many disputes over child care. As it is, it's not fair that someone should get a privilege and leave early without getting fired even though vacation and sick time are used up, but someone please think of the children ... hey, it's a choice to be a working parent, too.
My own employers have generally been very cool about things like that. They realize that employees don't perform well when wrestling with conscience issues. Maybe I'm missing something: is there something about Australian law that makes it this way?
If I'm not mistaken, the need to be in communion with God is one of the broad factors that led to labor laws protecting workers. Does the idea of working every day for sixteen hours strike people as odd? Even those who, by whatever choices, are doing it? Seems to me it is. The people I know who work themselves to death don't seem happy about the circumstance. But back before there were labor rules protecting workers and making sure they had rest periods, people worked themselves to death. Weekends, as we see in 8x5 and 10x5 union contracts, are heavily tied into the need to attend church.
Was it unreasonable to ask businesses to do this? Seems to me that we're getting better productivity out of workers by the lazy rules that allow breaks, and call for weekends, and all that sort of stuff.
But that's just me. I'm probably wrong.
thanx,
Tiassa