In a ruling that will apply to any South Pacific nation with a Human Rights Act, a Seventh-day Adventist has won written guarantees that his employer will accommodate his Sabbath-keeping.

Richard Valentine, 56, a 34-year employee of what is now Carter Harvey Holt Tasman Limited, also won a one-time leave of six weeks as well as NZ$40,000 (US$23,500), which is believed to be the highest settlement reached in an employment discrimination case. The landmark resolution came in a case raised against the employer by New Zealand’s Human Rights Review Tribunal, a government body.

“Observing the Sabbath is important to me because it’s an outward sign of my loyalty to God,” says Valentine. “It’s a big relief the case has finally come to an end.”

The tribunal’s finding is the first of its kind in New Zealand, says Valentine’s lawyer, Colin Perrior. “It does not just affect the Adventist Church or other religious faiths in New Zealand. It affects citizens of any country in the South Pacific that has a Human Rights Act.”

Valentine began working for what was then the Tasman Pulp and Paper Company Limited in 1969. Ten years later, Valentine joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church, whose members observe the Biblical Sabbath on Saturday. Asking to have his work schedule adjusted to accommodate this observance, Valentine was told he would have to find his own replacement for days when he was scheduled to work.

At first, finding such replacements was not difficult: The company had paid overtime to employees who worked on Saturdays, but an employment contract introduced set salaries in 1993, and overtime payments ceased. Tasman Pulp and Paper twice warned Valentine after he failed to attend part of a shift that fell on the Sabbath. The company and its successors, Norske Skog Tasman Limited and Carter Harvey Holt Tasman Limited, maintained they had taken appropriate steps to accommodate Valentine’s religious beliefs.

In 1999, Valentine, supported by a local church in New Zealand as well as regional Adventist Church leaders, brought his case to government authorities. Over the past four years, all sides have worked to devise a settlement.

This process has included employing a person to cover for Valentine on Saturdays. “At about NZ$70,000 [US$41,000] a year, this is not insignificant,” says Valentine. “But I have had to forgo a fair bit of my annual vacation.”

Along with the cash award and grant of extra time off, Valentine has been assured that the mill’s owners would permanently schedule him on shifts that do not conflict with the Sabbath; define his work role in a manner satisfactory to Valentine; remove from his personnel file any disciplinary items related to Sabbath observance; and continue to employ Valentine in his present position or in any other that is agreeable.

In a prepared statement, Norske Skog and Carter Harvey Holt “acknowledge the distress experienced by Mr. Valentine through the failure to accommodate his religious beliefs during his employment at the mill.”

A small Adventist church in Opotoki originally gave Valentine NZ$300 (US$176) as a “thank you” for taking a stand on the Sabbath. The Adventist Church in North New Zealand has since paid all of Valentine’s legal fees.

“I’d like to thank church leaders for their support,” says Valentine.

Jerry Matthews, president and religious liberty director of the church in North New Zealand, says the finding confirms and affirms religious freedom as a basic human right in New Zealand. “The government has passed laws protecting religious freedom, and this gives us evidence [that] the courts of law support what we as a people have voted for.

“Dick’s given a clear signal his faith is worth standing up for,” Matthews adds.