Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 employers are prohibited from discriminating against individuals because of religious affiliation. These protections extend to terms and conditions of employment such as hiring, firing and promotion status, to name a few. The Act also includes the requirement to reasonably accommodate the religious practices of an employee or applicant, unless doing so would create an “undue hardship” on the employer. Specifically, a reasonable religious accommodation is any modification to the work environment that allows the employee to practice his/her religion. Some examples of modifications in the workplace can include flexible scheduling, coordinated work shift substitutions or swaps and job reassignments. Again, modifications are considered reasonable when they do not place “undue hardship” or business disruption on the employer.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has outlined best practices for eliminating religious discrimination in the workplace. Applicable topics include inconsistent treatment based on religion, religious harassment, reasonable accommodation and retaliation. We will now examine each topic separately.
Inconsistent Treatment Based on Religion
- Employer Best Practices
- Develop objective written criteria for evaluating candidates for hire or promotion and apply the criteria equally
- During interviews ask all candidates the same questions and keep inquiries related to the job vacancy
- Reduce risks of religious discrimination claims by quickly and carefully recording disciplinary or performance-related actions and share reasons for the actions
- Provide comprehensive training to managers and supervisors in an effort to curtail employment discrimination based on subjective judgments
- Educate customers about equal employment opportunity laws should they react negatively to an employee based on religious garb or afflation
Religious Harassment
- Employer Best Practices
- Develop consistent anti-harassment policies that include religious harassment and include provisions for complaints
- Religious expression should be allowed to the same extent as other types of personal expression that are not harassing or disruptive
- Develop vendor/contractor policies that address anti-harassment toward company employees
- Prevent conflicts from escalating by intervening when made aware of objectively abusive or insulting conduct
- Employee Best Practices
- An employee who is the recipient of unwelcome religious conduct should inform the individual who is directing it their way to stop and if it does not stop report the conduct to a supervisor or HR Department
- When an employee is uneasy about asking an individual to stop religious harassment he/she should report the conduct to a supervisor or HR Department
Reasonable Accommodation of Religious Beliefs and Practices
Reasonable Accommodation – Generally
- Employer Best Practices
- Communicate with employees about reasonable efforts to accommodate employee’s religious practices
- Conduct manager/supervisory training about recognizing employee religious accommodation requests
- Develop internal procedures for processing religious accommodation requests
- Develop procedures for assessing requests so to avoid religious belief stereotypes or assumptions
- Keep a level of confidentiality when addressing religious accommodation requests
- Employers are not required to provide an employee’s preferred accommodation if there is more than one effective alternative in which to choose from
- Provide manager/supervisory training to identify alternative available accommodations if the particular one requested presents an “undue hardship”
- Employee Best Practices
- Advise manager/supervisors of the nature of the conflict between their religious needs and the work rules
- Provide enough information about the accommodation need and why it is necessitated by a religious practice or belief
Retaliation
- Employer Best Practices
- Train managers/supervisors to be aware of company anti-retaliation obligations under the law
- Record accurate business reasons for employee disciplinary or performance-related actions and share the reasons with an affected employee
For more information about religious discrimination in the workplace click here.
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