Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals because of their religion in hiring, firing, or any other terms and conditions of employment.
Employers are required to reasonably accommodate the religious beliefs and practices of applicants and employees, unless such an accommodation poses a substantial burden on the employer.
Accommodations may include adjustments to scheduling, job reassignments, exceptions to dress or grooming rules, and exemptions from policies that conflict with an employee’s religious beliefs.
A glance at recent lawsuits alleging religious discrimination underscores the many ways an employer can run afoul of workplace discrimination laws:
- Employee informs employer she cannot work a shift from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday because of her religious observance of the Sabbath as a Seventh-day Adventist. Employer fails to take adequate steps to reasonably accommodate her religious observance and instead terminates her employment.
- Employee is fired after informing his employer that the fingerprinting requirement conflicts with his religious beliefs, requesting an exemption from the fingerprinting requirement as an accommodation. The employer does not look for a way to accommodate the employee’s religious beliefs before ending his employment,
- In a similar case, a devout evangelical Christian retires under protest rather than submit to biometric hand scanning to track work hours. The employer fails to provide an accommodation such as allowing the employee to punch in manually.
- A Rastafarian applicant sues a local grocery store for religious discrimination after he is denied employment. The suit claims the store refused to accommodate his beliefs, declining to hire him because he refused to cut his hair.
- A Buddhist pilot diagnosed with alcohol dependency seeking to reinstate his medical certification asks for an accommodation to substitute required Alcoholics Anonymous meetings with attendance at a Buddhist-based peer support group because he objects to AA religious content. The pilot’s religious objection is refused and he is unable to obtain necessary certification to fly.
- A hospital and clinic group rescinds job offer when applicant refuses flu shot based on religious beliefs.
Know Your Rights as a Victim of Workplace Discrimination
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits employers with 15 or more employees from discriminating on the basis of religion, state or local anti-discrimination laws may cover employers with fewer employees. If you work for local, state, or federal governments, additional legal protections may exist.
If your employer is covered by anti-discrimination law, you have the right to be free from religious discrimination, including harassment and retaliation that creates a hostile work environment. Your employer must provide a reasonable accommodation for your religious practices when asked as long as it doesn’t create undue hardship to the employer’s operation.
What to Do If Your Rights are Violated
If you have been discriminated against in your workplace because of your religious beliefs or on the basis of sex, national origin, age, disability, race, color or another protected class, contact the experienced employment discrimination attorneys at Alan C. Olson & Associates for help today.
