Sainsbury's kowtows to employees who refuse to "ring" sales of alcohol and spirits

Submitted by David Harari (France), Oct 3, 2007 at 11:37

This is not a comment about the current article but about something I read yesterday in the web-edition of the London Times. Apparently, Sainsbury"s supermakets in the UK have deferred to the demands of their Moslem employees who refuse to ring sales of alcohol and spirits or to restock the shelves with such products. In a misguided interpretation of the precepts of Islam, they do not wish to handle or touch bottles, cans of alcohol-based products. They allow them to "step aside and let another employee ring the sale" and then they sit back at their workstation...

It reminds me of the case in Minneapolis when a few taxi drivers refused to accept passengers who carried bottles of spirits bought in the plane or wherever...and only a determined action by your readers and many other people convinced the airport management to discard its plans of creating two categories of taxi drivers at the airport...where are we coming to if we continue this policy of appeasement towards extremists who have a very narrow minded interpretation of the rules of Islam??

One should read the comments that were posted on the London Times web site about Sainsbury's and its surrendering to its own employees. Maybe a similar campaign should be mounted against Sainsbury's until they relent.

I can't find the location of the article in yesterday's London Times but I read it along with 60 or some more comments, mostly critical of this ridiculous policy...

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