In my last Insight, I discussed what constitutes religious discrimination in the workplace. Here’s another way your company can continue to proactively guard against discrimination of this kind:
Establish an Anti-Discrimination Policy.
It’s always a good idea to get your company’s Human Resources (HR) department involved when it comes to religious accommodation requests, as well as to help create anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies at your company. You should also consult with an employment lawyer about this issue.
It’s really important to establish policies that address these particular religious issues and conduct related workforce training to educate managerial employees on properly recognizing and addressing related situations. Two policies that should definitely be adopted by every company (if they haven’t been already), and which should also address and prohibit all types of religious discrimination, are:
- An Anti-Harassment policy
- An Anti-Discrimination policy.
Implementation and consistent application of these policies, including reasonable accommodation and anti-retaliation provisions, will assist companies in complying with applicable law. Such policies also communicate to employees specifically what an employee should do in order to submit a religious accommodation request, and how the company will handle those requests and make related decisions.
Because there has been a recent surge in religious discrimination claims against employers (as noted by the EEOC in its recently updated compliance guidance, cited in my last Insight), it’s especially important to have something in your company handbook to reference when/if issues do surface—that way you know exactly how to recognize related issues and handle them appropriately.
These issues don’t come up as often as they used to, but it’s still important to have something in your company handbook to reference when/if issues do surface—that way you know exactly how to handle it.
When Companies Have Issues with Religion I have dealt with employers who wanted to advertise a job and in the posting they wanted to include some language stating “Christians are encouraged to apply.” I had to explain to the employer that this gives the appearance of favoring a particular type of applicant and doing so would be inviting a discrimination claim.
Oftentimes, especially in smaller companies, some business owners have the attitude of, “Well it’s my company, and if I want my culture to be all Christians, then that should be my prerogative.” And their argument is often that they are the owner and so they should be allowed to decide what kind of people they want working for their company.
Some business owners can be pretty rooted in their convictions, so it’s important for them to realize that, under the law, they aren’t allowed to discriminate. In instances such as this, I often point out different cases that have already been tried in court to show the employer why they need to be concerned about religious discrimination. Actual court cases usually wake them up.
The bottom line is that employers need to remain neutral when it comes to religion. They can’t put down a religion; they can’t favor a religion. They simply must remain neutral and accommodate an employee’s religious requests when and if possible in accordance with applicable state and federal laws.
For more information about religious discrimination in the workplace, visit the EEOC religious discrimination Webpage.