Subscribe by RSS
Subscribe by EmailPraying For Help: Will 2005 Be Known As The Year of Religious Discrimination Charges?
In this article from Corporate Counsel, some new and emerging examples of religious discrimination lawsuits are discussed. Despite religious discrimination charges being the smallest category under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (accounting for only 3% of claims brought to the EEOC), experts suggest that there has been a significant rise in such cases. Some examples where religious discrimination charges have arisen include:
a maintenance worker fired for violating company’s facial hair policy;
a food server terminated for having visible wrist tattoos;
an EMT who refused to transport transport a pregnant patient to another facility that had an abortion clinic.
Adding to the mix of issues is a proposed bill, the Workplace Religious Freedom Act, which would require companies to make more serious attempts at religious accommodations.
Read here for more information.
Related Posts
If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing.
Religious discrimination can take several distinct forms.
The first, similar to claims for discrimination based on race, sex, etc., involves failure to hire or promote, or termination, for example, motivated by dislike for an individual’s religious affiliation or beliefs.
The second, similar to some disability discrimination claims, involves failure to reasonably accommodate religious needs of an employee, such as time off for religious holidays, required prayer, or Sabbath observance.
At present, the duty to accommodate such religious needs is not very stringent, with an undue hardship defense relatively easy to establish.
Nonetheless, accommodation requests should be seriously evaluated, in consultation with legal counsel if in any doubt. Even if a legal case based on denial of accomodation could be won, morale and retention considerations may favor granting a requested religious accommodation.
Finally, religious harassment is a definite possibility. This could involve, for example, pervasive offensive remarks about Muslims or others practicing minority religions. It also conceivably could involve extreme and pervasive proselytizing, with its implicit or explicit claims that the other’s religion (or nonreligion) is wrong, will send the m to hell, etc.