You should look for a plaintiffs-side employment discrimination attorney. Your case would be that your employer is discriminating against you on the basis of your religion by not "reasonably accomodating" your dietary restrictions. If your employer accomodated your dietary restrictions for years before now refusing to do so, that strengthens your argument that it was not unduly burdensome on your employer to accomodate those restrictions.

Assuming the facts are as you state them to be, it seems like a pretty strong case. One issue that might come up is the applicable law. I dont' know if admiralty/maritime laws have any exception to the general rules related to employment discrimination. I'm not an expert on admiralty or maritime law.

another thought: this is shocking that the captain agrees with the cook, as
1) fruit and vegetables are always cheaper than meat
2) they are about to promote you, so obviously like you a lot and
3) our nation supposedly values the right of people to practice their religions!! even if you were a vegetarian athiest, you should have that option for moral/health reasons!!

if you don't want to "bite the bullet" and pay with your salary increase, just keep in mind, if you sue, they fire you, you win (which you will), and they reinstate you (they would have to), you will probably come out financially ahead of the game, and have helped others with similar eating/religious issues stay in the military. Maybe this is just a matter of bringing your concerns to the head of the defense dept., representatives in congress, Nancy Pelosi, and even Bush!! They all say they care about religious diversity, and preserving the diverse nature of America!! Isn't that what this war is supposedly being fought for: to not be forced to obey a certain religion , and give up your own!!?? Tell them all to check out the First Amendment of the Constitution!! -F

Michael,

I would look at it more from a problem-resolution perspective. Sometimes just educating people about the law in a tactful way can help to shift things. You have contract issues: Do you have employment guarantees in your contract or spoken or implied by behavior? Can you be fired at-will, or must it be for cause?

And then you may have the civil rights issues regarding discrimination.

I would suggest that you do some research, such as trying to find similar cases or situations. You could search "vegetarian employee ship rights" and various forms of that on Google or Webcrawler. You might find something on www.serph.com by typing in those words also.

Once you find some sample cases, and have a more clear understanding of your contractual and civil rights in this context, then you might be in a stronger negotiation position.

As a practical reality, you may want to wait until your promotion. That would show that the quality of your work was satisfactory, and also may give you a bit more clout either in negotiation or a lawsuit.

Alternatives - can you just have the chef buy you the food that you need but not have to cook specially for you? Can you hook up a juicer/processor and do some raw? How about simple soups or other easy-to-prepare meals that you could do yourself or would be easy for the chef?

Best of luck,

Duane Light
Holistic Attorney (CA)
www.LightOnTheLaw.com