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 [转帖]柴玲因宗教歧视被告---- |
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豆腐
加入时间: 2004/02/14
文章: 1882
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作者：豆腐 在 驴鸣镇 发贴, 来自 http://www.hjclub.org
2012年7月2日星島日報記者紐約報道：
前八九六四民運領袖柴玲繼發表寬恕六四屠城者的言論引起廣泛爭議後，近日亦因為強行要求僱員改變宗教信仰不成下把對方解僱，因而被後者入稟起訴歧視。
根據「波士頓環球報」報道，控告柴玲毀約及歧視的是反一胎化組織「女童之聲」(All Girls Allowed) 主管張菁，她於今年 3 月被解僱，至於她所創辦的婦孺權益保護團體「中國婦權」，也失去了柴玲的資助，使得該團體的大陸項目也因經費問題被迫暫緩推行。事實上，張菁及柴玲都是海外民運人士，之前還一起出席美國國會的「一胎化政策聽證會」。
根據張菁的指控，她是于 2010 年 5 月獲柴玲雇任為「女童之聲」的主管，不過，信奉基督教福音派的柴玲一直要求身為天主教徒的張菁改信基督教，並於今年 3 月給她發了一封形同最後通牒的電郵，指她要不尋求上帝的旨意作為她每日生活的基礎，要不就需另謀高就。
張菁因不接受，結果遭柴玲終止合約，「中國婦權」亦不再獲得撥款，結果張菁以對方歧視及報復為由，控告對方侵犯法律所保障的人權與自由，並要求柴玲對此作出賠償。
不過，「女童之聲」的發言人回應時指出，作為一個有信仰背景的慈善機構，強調及重視信仰的作用合情合理，張菁在獲得雇任時亦清楚明白有關要求。
有法律學者指出，法律禁止宗教歧視，但對於一些宗教組織的聘用條件則容許一些例外，包括容許有關機構優先聘用有相同宗教信仰的人士。
然而，張菁的律師反指，「女童之聲」是一個人權組織，而非一個宗教組織，張菁受僱前，亦從未同意改信柴玲的宗教，他續說，張菁本身亦相信上帝，但她沒有興趣透過工作來傳福音。而且，就算不論「女童之聲」是否符合宗教組織的資格，張菁亦非該機構僱員，她實際是柴玲創立的軟體公司 Jenzabar Inc. 的員工，她的薪酬支票亦是由 Jenzabar Inc. 開出的。
http://ny.stgloballink.com/community/201207/t20120702_1757052.html
Chinese rights activist sued for bias
The Boston Globe July 01, 2012
Ling Chai, a leader of China’s 1989 prodemocracy movement and now a controversial business leader in Boston, is being sued for religious discrimination for allegedly firing an employee who declined to pray at work.
Chai, the wife of Massachusetts Republican Party chairman Robert A. Maginn Jr., is the founder of the Boston-based education software firm Jenzabar Inc. and related charitable organizations Jenzabar Foundation and All Girls Allowed, which opposes China’s One-Child Policy.
All three organizations, along with Chai, are named in the federal lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of New York last month.
The employee, Jing Zhang, is a Chinese activist who once spent five years in a Chinese prison for promoting freedom and democracy, according to the suit. In the United States, Zhang had already established her own nonprofit, Women’s Rights in China, in Flushing, N.Y., when she joined forces with Chai to develop programs to prevent forced abortions in China. Then, she alleges, Chai fired her for being insufficiently religious and for declining to engage in “weekly corporate worship.”
Attached to the lawsuit is a March e-mail that purportedly issued Zhang an ultimatum: She could either “seek the will of God in her life on a daily basis through study of God’s word and through prayer” or start looking for a new job.
That document asked Zhang to agree to statements, including, “I believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and apart from him nobody can receive eternal life and enter the kingdom of God.”
If she disagreed, the document said, Zhang would undergo a one-year mediation period, during which she would continue to be paid but would lose funding for her New York office, have to train her successor, surrender all her contacts in China, and agree not to slander Chai.
“When she demurred, she was fired,” said Daniel L. Alterman, one of Zhang’s attorneys.
“Whatever the problems that exist in China, in America, we have something called the First Amendment that respects freedom of religion,” he said. “And an employer can’t force an employee to practice the same religion that they practice.”
But in a statement from All Girls Allowed, spokeswoman Kat Lewis defended the right of the charitable group to emphasize faith and said Zhang was aware of the “requirements to succeed” when she took the job in 2010.
“As a ministry and faith-based organization, the law makes allowances for such an infusion of faith into the work of All Girls Allowed,” Lewis said in the statement.
Calling the lawsuit a “smear campaign” and “meritless,” the organization’s statement also said Zhang was fired for performance issues, including her “refusal to abide by the faith-based conditions of her employment that she knew and accepted when she began working with All Girls Allowed.”
State and federal law prohibit discrimination based on religion, but allow an exemption for religious organizations to give hiring preference to people of the same faith, noted Harvard Law professor Noah Feldman. What constitutes a religious organization, and a ministerial job within it, is subject to a judge’s discretion.
“You can discriminate in hiring and firing employees whose roles are at the religious core of your activity,” he said, noting those would typically include “the priest or imam, not the janitor.”
According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the exception applies to institutions that are “primarily religious” based on their articles of incorporation, day-to-day operations, nonprofit status, and affiliation with a church.
Kevin Mintzer, another attorney for Zhang, said All Girls Allowed’s articles of incorporation show it was formed as a human rights organization, not a religious group.
He said that Zhang, a Catholic, never agreed to practice her faith in the same manner as her boss, who is an evangelical Christian.
“She’s not an irreligious person. She does believe,” Mintzer said of Zhang. “But she had no interest in entanglement with work and having requirements of praying on the job and worshiping a certain way. It was completely thrust upon her.”
Whether or not All Girls Allowed might qualify for a religious exemption, he said, Zhang was technically not even an employee of that organization. “She was a Jenzabar Inc. employee,” Mintzer said. “They gave that to her in a contract two times. Every pay stub she ever got was from Jenzabar.”
Jenzabar, which provides software and related services to colleges, has in recent years been targeted in unrelated lawsuits that resulted in quiet settlements.
The company has also claimed a leading role in fund-raising for Republican candidates since its chief executive, Maginn, was elected chairman of the state Republican party in November. Jenzabar also gave $250,000 to the super-PAC supporting presidential candidate Mitt Romney, whose former Belmont home Maginn and Chai now occupy.
Chai has also been a target of controversy in the past, suing documentary filmmakers whose film on the Tiananmen Square uprising of 1989 portrayed her in a controversial light.
According to the latest suit, Chai met Zhang when she served as Zhang’s translator during a congressional hearing on China’s one-child policy in 2009. Chai hired her as her director of China and Overseas Communities in May 2010 and Jenzabar began supporting Zhang’s existing nonprofit in 2007, according to the suit.
But later, Chai began asking Zhang to set aside time in the office for prayer, to attend retreats, and to participate in Bible study on two-hour daily conference calls from her New York office at times that often conflicted with Zhang’s calls to China, according to the suit.
Early this year, the suit says, Zhang was ordered to change the agency’s programs to require that all of their field workers in China and any recipients of their aid were Christians.
In February, Chai told her that she needed to begin practicing her religion more devoutly if she wanted to continue working there.
Lewis said in a statement that Chai “became a follower of Jesus” on Dec. 4, 2009.
While Chai and All Girls Allowed are grieved that Zhang has pursued a lawsuit, Lewis said, “They have forgiven Ms. Zhang and her attorneys and have been praying for God to bless them.”
Stephanie Ebbert can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @stephanieebbert.
作者：豆腐 在 驴鸣镇 发贴, 来自 http://www.hjclub.org |
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