During a recent Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange Mr Nigel Coke, the communications, public affairs, and religious liberty director of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jamaica, shared the experience that a young Sabbath keeper had with his employer that was most eye-opening.

The young man, Mr Coke said, secured summer employment to a company in Mandeville through the National Youth Service programme. He started working on a Tuesday. On the Friday, he told the boss that he couldn’t come to work on the Saturday because of his religious faith. However, the boss insisted that he had to work. But the young man didn’t show up on Saturday and when he returned to work the following Monday he was dismissed.

The church, on hearing of the matter, intervened and told the business operator that he was breaking the law. The result was that the young man was reinstated.

That experience demonstrated that there exists some amount of ignorance of the law as it relates to religious freedom. Therefore, the staging of the Religious Liberty Summit at Jamaica Conference Centre at the end of January this year was most timely.

The summit, Mr Coke and other faith leaders told this newspaper, was designed to foster dialogue and understanding among different religious groups in Jamaica.

According to Mr Coke, the decision to stage the summit was taken after seeing some of the challenges faced by Sabbath keepers — challenges in the workplace and at some educational institutions.

“We are looking at promoting a better understanding of what religious liberty is about. We are looking at highlighting the fundamental rights that persons have,” he explained, adding that the summit theme was ‘Fostering unity, respecting beliefs’.

Against that background, leaders in the public and private sectors, various church groups, umbrella groups, and interfaith groups were invited to the summit that gave them the opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogue on this matter, as well as to examine solutions that are practical in today’s world.

One of the issues of note raised at the summit was the beneficial role of flexible work arrangements in promoting and protecting religious liberty.

Minister of Labour and Social Security Pearnel Charles Jr, in his presentation, noted that just over a decade ago the Government enacted the Employment (Flexible Work Arrangements) (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2014.

“This groundbreaking legislation,” he said, “has been a catalyst for change, modernising our labour market to drive greater inclusivity, flexibility, efficiency, and productivity”.

While the Administration should be commended for enacting this legislation, we suspect that its provisions are known to very few employers and employees. The case of the young man in Mandeville referred to earlier in this column is an indication of that deficit.

The authorities, therefore, should start preparing an extensive public education campaign on this law so as to ensure that Jamaicans’ right to religious freedom is not abused.

For, as Dr Nelu Burcea, the Seventh-day Adventist World Church’s associate public affairs and religious liberty director, warned at the summit: “The right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion is not negotiable. It is a fundamental human right that must be upheld by all, without exception.”