Garden City Teachers Association

In the Matter of the Arbitration Between Garden City Teachers Association and Garden City U.F.S.D. The Becket Fund helped a public school teachers' union in Garden City Long Island enforce teachers' right to use personal days for observing religious holidays.  The union's collective bargaining agreement with the school district permitted teachers to take three paid personal days each year.  The contract listed reasons for which teachers could take a personal day, including attending a child's graduation, closing on a mortgage, illness of a family member, and others.  The list also included taking personal leave for "Religious reasons related to one's faith."

Several Catholic teachers submitted a request to take off Holy Thursday, but were denied on the grounds that, according to the school district, there was no tenet of the Catholic faith that required them to refrain from work on Holy Thursday.  A Jewish teacher was denied permission to take a personal day on Passover.  The school district said that while Judaism did require refraining from work on Passover, this teacher had not been observant of the holiday the past year and thus could not take it off this year.

The union filed a grievance on behalf of the teachers, and the Becket Fund assisted in the arbitration.  The arbitrator found for the teachers, finding that the school district could not inquire into the tenets of a teacher's faith, although it could take reasonable steps to determine if a teacher is applying for a personal day fraudulently.  The arbitrator also found that, with regard to the Jewish complainant, it is irrelevant whether a person asked for a religious holiday in previous years, and that people are entitled to become more serious about their faith at any time.