What are the areas of concern with respect to religious discrimination?
Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of religion and defines "religion" as including all aspects of religious observance and practice, as well as belief.
Religious discrimination occurs when an individual is required by an employment rule or policy to choose between abandoning a fundamental precept of religion or giving up an employment opportunity.
Not only are religious believers protected from discrimination, but so are agnostics and atheists. For example, an atheist cannot be compelled to attend staff meetings that begin with a prayer. Examples of reasonable accommodation include the use of voluntary substitutes and swaps, flexible scheduling, lateral transfer and change of job assignment.
Because of the various state and local laws, it is very important that managers and supervisors consult these laws to determine what additional religious discrimination requirements are imposed. Be sure to check State Laws for the laws that apply in your state(s).
The list below can be used by managers and supervisors to highlight compliance issues raised by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Unlawful religious bias may occur when a policy on overtime pay results in a disadvantage to employees observing a Sabbath day other than Sunday (i.e., denying Sunday overtime to a Seventh Day Adventist who refused to work Saturdays while offering Saturday overtime to employees whose religion prohibited Sunday work).
An employer is under an obligation to maintain a work environment free of religious bias. Permitting a supervisor to espouse his religious beliefs to employees while at work may amount to religious discrimination.
An employer must make alternative arrangements if it is notified that an employee cannot be present at a scheduled test or other selection procedure because the time conflicts with the tenets of the employee's religion, unless the employer can demonstrate undue hardship.
Employers who can demonstrate that they are unable to reasonably accommodate an employee's or applicant's religious observance or practice without undue hardship are not unlawfully discriminating.
An employer may refuse to accommodate the dress or grooming requirements of an employee that are based on religion only when the employer can demonstrate undue hardship on the conduct of its business (i.e., safety factors, etc.).
Where an employee notifies an employer that his or her religious beliefs conflict with a particular training technique or method used in a "new age" training program (e.g., yoga, meditation, etc.), an employer might have to accommodate the employee's belief by substituting an alternative technique or method not offensive to the employee's belief or by excusing the employee from that particular part of the training program.
Reprinted with permission. © CCH
What are the areas of concern with respect to religious discrimination? Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of religion and defines "religion" as including all aspects of religious observance and practice, as well as belief.
What are the areas of concern with respect to religious discrimination?
/resources/qa/what_are_the_areas_of_concern_with_respect_to_religious_discrimination.aspx
1713
none