When I worked in Buenos Aires, I was surprised one day when my Head of the Computer Room came in to tell me that he had agreed with his second to replace him on the next day. Since he hadn't mentioned taking the day off, I asked him what was going on.Fjgrogan wrote:I was interested in Neill's comments on Jewish holidays.
To my surprise, he informed me that the next day was a Jewish holiday, and since he was a Jew, (not something I had thought about up to that moment), in accordance with the law, he was taking the day off.
I checked up with Human Resources to discover he was well within his rights.
To Quote
By law, those who belong to the Jewish or the Islamic faith, are entitled to additional public holidays off: Islamic New Year, Eid al Fitr, and Eid al Adha, for Muslims, and the first and last days of Passover, and Yom Kippur for Jews (laws 24.571, 24.757, and 26,089)
I know that Jewish school in the UK also take these holidays,(my sister works in a large Jewish school in North London), but I wondered how many other faiths and in which countries, get this favoured treatment?
As an aside, my sister is responsible for the "Problem Pupils", and has had many an unfortunate experience as they are "untouchable". Her office was once invaded by an "violent" pupil, who held her ransom, threatened her if she tried to use the phone, or leave the office, so that she was forced to surreptitiously write notes on Post-its and stick them on the window of the office to let people know what was going on. Naturally, she couldn't touch the child as the parents would probably have brought a law case against the school.
Weird times.