Muslim staff working at M&S allowed to refuse sale of alcohol and pork
James_Graham
Posts: 259 Forum Member
✭
At M&S, Muslim staff who do not wish to handle alcohol or pork have been told they can politely request that customers choose another till at which to pay.
At one of its stores in central London last week, customers waiting with goods that included pork or alcohol were told by a Muslim checkout worker to wait until another till became available. The assistant was extremely apologetic at having to ask customers to wait.
One customer, who declined to be named, said: “I had one bottle of champagne, and the lady, who was wearing a headscarf, was very apologetic but said she could not serve me. She told me to wait until another member of staff was available.
“I was taken aback. I was a bit surprised. I’ve never come across that before.”
Customers trying to buy alcoholic drinks for Christmas were also asked to wait.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/10532782/Muslim-staff-at-Marks-and-Spencer-can-refuse-to-sell-alcohol-and-pork.html
So it's Christmas, everyone is running around busy. You do your shopping, you queue up to pay, you get to the front of the line only to be greeted by a Muslim who tells you your products are against his/her religion and you have to go and find another till.
There's something very, very wrong in this country.
I urge anyone who comes up against this to refuse to shop there. It is an utter disgrace.
0
Comments
In the 21st century, people who believe in Santa, Fairies, Allah etc should not get the respect they are given.
if you don't want to handle them don't get a job there, simple
employers should be able to refuse jobs to people who want this sort of special teatment
Likewise.
Well, it's been a tradition for years to give the man of the match in football a bottle of champagne.
That has now been replaced by a plastic trophy because Muslim footballers complained that when they were deemed man of the match, they couldn't accept a bottle of booze.
So I suspect that now Islamic numbers are sufficiently strong in this country, that muscles are being flexed and trying to change our ways to suit their ways.
M&S has previous
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/31491/Outcry-as-Muslim-M-S-worker-refuses-to-sell-unclean-Bible-book
This assumes we don't have over-riding laws from Brussels which prohibit the asking of such questions. Which would seem absurd to anyone with commonsense, but hey, you know Brussels.
Can you imagine this conversation?
INTERVIEWER: Can you drive this class of heavy goods vehicles?
CANDIDATE: Yes, I have the appropriate qualifications.
INTERVIEWER: Excellent
CANDIDATE: But I joined a religious group last week and they forbid me to travel along 'A' roads.
INTERVIEWER: No worries! Thanks to new laws we can accommodate you! Just park your lorry before reaching the 'A' road and we'll send someone along to drive the vehicle until it reaches another type of road!
And then they would be done for discrimination.
Yet I see footballers being handed bottles of champagne for winning the MOTM on a weekly basis.
Let's not start making things up.
In the context it isn't discrimination though is it. It's on the same basis i'd be discriminated against if I applied for a job at Kwik-fit but wasn't a mechanic. I'm simply not the best man for the job, and in this case, a muslim isn't the best candidate for the job.
Although I appreciate you agree, you're just pointing out what would be reported.
So could a vegetarian checkout person refuse to handle any meat or fish at all ... and as for a vegan one! And presumably teetotal staff could refuse to handle alcohol, or any product containing it.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2527820/Marks-Spencer-tells-Muslim-staff-CAN-refuse-serve-customers-buying-alcohol-pork.html
Can the Muslim staff have a separate till all to themselves in that case? Because I don't want to have to go through loading all my items onto the counter, only to have them tell me they can't touch a sealed product because of what it contains on religious grounds. Such a fuss over nothing, and I wonder if they will allow the customer to just run it through the scanner themselves? It's hardly a difficult thing to do.
Exactly. When does a container equal the proscribed food/drink?
What about the shop itself? The shop contains the containers for the pork and drink. Should the Muslim refrain from entering the shop?
M&S should have told these staff members to join the 21st century.
I can't imagine they'd be allowed to refuse service to a normal (i.e non disruptive) customer, they'd probably just have to call someone over on the tannoy to scan it, a bit like under 18s when they have to scan alcohol because they can't legally 'sell' it.
I've lived in a Muslim country before and they sold bacon and booze and smiled whilst doing it.
I guess the issue is here that not serving people who wish to buy alcohol or pork is not an adequate level of service.
Where next. could vegetarian staff members refuse to serve any customers buying meat? Could catholic staff members refuse to serve people buying condoms?
Its a very slippery slope.