It's sometimes hard to work out whether people are venting their anti-religious emotions for relief (when they say that this driver should be sacked on the spot), or whether they actually support employers and governments having so much power they can fire you in a heartbeat over a minor dispute.
Oh no it isn't. You have clearly been legged-over, perhaps due to being ignorant of employment laws.
Well it depends on the employer but failure to comply with lawful and reasonable instructions is generally regarded as gross misconduct. Provided the correct procedures are carried out I don't think he would have any redress if fired.
The correct procedure is not summary dismissal if someone "refuses to work and goes home".
I don't see why there should be any logical difficulty with a "reasonableness" standard being applicable to whether a circumstance justifies an action under law. Yet it appears that some people have tremendous problems with things like "where do you draw the line" and "opening the floodgates"/"slippery slope". Even criminal laws operate under reasonableness tests.
It "seems"? Maybe you are perceiving it through some bias rather than objectivity, you think?
A very good point.
It's people like this that inspired FSTDT
.It's only the religious that can end up in situations like that - the rest of us don't get nearly the same kind of respect. If I said that Fallout 3 offended me because of perceived political leanings, no one would care. If I said that I, as an atheist, was offended by Oblivion because there's only one atheist in the whole game and she is ugly, dresses in black, acts all obnoxious towards everyone and at one point tries to kill you because she worships some sort of demon or whatever... no one would care. If I was a bus driver and refused to drive a bus because there was a GOP poster on its side, I'd be the laughing stock of the bus company.
You think they should be allowed to work notice?
Can you corroborate that, and not with anecdotes?
I don't have enough info, and nor do you. I don't even know if it justifies termination of employment. (I doubt it actually).
I'd personally, as a layman, want it to be handled the same way you'd handle, say, a vegan suddenly, without warning, refusing to drive a bus with a McDonald's ad on it.