M&S cashiers can refuse to handle pork and alcohol

[HermioneWeasley]

www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/10532782/Muslim-staff-at-Marks-and-Spencer-can-refuse-to-sell-alcohol-and-pork.html

I would be extremely annoyed at being held up by someone refusing to "handle" alcohol and pork. After all, the stuff is either in bottles or cellophane so it's not coming into direct contact.

Personally, I wouldn't have this policy, but if m&S think it's reasonable to refuse, why not put employees who object in a different part of the store, instead of inconveniencing customers?

And before cries of racism and Islamaphobia start, my family are Muslim (though I am not) and would have no problem with putting bottles and packs through a checkout.

"you work in a supermarket or any shop for that matter, you should sell all products. You don't like it, do a different job."

Or get a job where your employer is happy to accommodate you. Like in this scenario.

I know this will sound flippant but will the staff concerned then refuse to sell Percy Pigs?

Except it's not the employer doing the accommodating in this scenario, it's the customers.

They can shop somewhere else if they don't like m&s decision.
But the idea of "if you don't like it get a different job" is ludicrous there's no need.
The employer and employee are happy with the arrangement and the public can choose where to take their custom.

It's an absolute non-issue

I'll shop elsewhere - easy

m&s needs to put up signs telling customers so the customer can make an informed choice. I'd be annoyed to have my time wasted in getting shopping only for a cashier to refuse to sell the items

We really shouldn't take leave of the fact that the Torygraph may have just made it up. It might appeal to the wing-back chair snorters to read stuff like that. I've always maintained that DT is just a tabloid in disguise

I'd be furious. I'm so bored of all this PC shit all the time with regards to religion/gender/disability. Yawn

And I'd obviously shop elsewhere

What PC Shit with regards to disabilty are you bored with olives?

Probably buggies V wheelchairs SJ. It's going to be a PS game as one of the many MN products for sale.

I'll let you ponder that one...

from what I can gather this is the story:

A woman purchasing alcohol/pork products was asked by her cashier if she would go to another till. She went to the Telegraph with the story. M&S confirmed that, wherever possible, they accommodate the religious beliefs of their staff (whatever religion.) Other news outlets have picked up on the story.

I don't think this is big, new policy.

If this is indeed true, I would hope that M&S would not send customers who have already queued to another line. Instead, they should do what they do when a member of staff is underage and unable to serve alcohol, and send a supervisor to scan the items to ensure that the customer is not inconvenienced.

It is so utterly ludicrous that I can't believe that it would actually happen. If it did, I would absolutely not move to another till, and would stand precisely where I was until a member of M&S (I care not who...) scanned all of my items.

Beliefs are fine - just not at the expense of my time spent queuing in a shop. My beliefs are that the customer is there to be served by the person at the till she/he has just spent ages queuing at, not faffing about because someone who has decided that there religion has forbidden them to touch a cellophane wrapped product (it hasn't).

their not there

I would refuse to move too. The queues are not great at this time of the year and to get to the front of one and be told that the cashier wont handle my purchases is a load of nonsense!

And are we supposed to go through each item we have in our trolley and ask the Muslim checkout assistant if they are happy to scan it? Utter nonsense!

Totally agree Sir. Where would it end?! Ridiculous.

Even if signs were put up at the tills where alcohol, pork and products with gelatine or pork additives were part of the ingredients, I'm not convinced that the majority of shoppers will be as knowledgeable about every item they are purchasing that falls into these categories.

I think there would be a huge number of customers who would read the sign and believe they had no alcohol or pork, so proceed to queue up at that till, only to be refused service when they get to the front of the queue because they are buying a product with gelatine or pork additives.

You will get many customers whose idea of pork is a piece of meat and alcohol is a drink in a can or a bottle. I'm not being offensive to people generally, but I have worked in a supermarket on the till and there are huge swathes of people who have very little idea of what is in the products they are buying, they just buy them out of habit.

This idea would make shopping at M&S too much like hard work for many imo.

I suspect you would have a queue of people refusing (quite rightly) to move, and a supervisor would spend his/her time scanning through 'banned' products. Do you honestly think that customers who have spent time queueing would happily move to the back of another queue because someone has incorrectly decided that their religious beliefs prevent them from handling cellophane wrapped meat or alcohol in containers?