It Is important to note that the original discrimination claim does not have to be successful for and employer to still be found guilty of retaliation in response to the filing of the original claim. Employers cannot schedule examinations or other selection activities in conflict with a current or prospective employee's religious needs, unless the employer can prove that not doing so would cause an undue hardship.
You may either choose to let your potential employer know that this poses a conflict with your day of worship, or you may just wish to tell the employer that you have a conflict and are not available on that day. Employees also bear responsibility to resolve conflicts between job duties and religious needs, so you should let your employer know about any potential conflict either when you accept a job.
If you have become more observant of your religion during your employment, and there is now a conflict that did not previously exist, you should let your employer know immediately. The law protects both current employees and job applicants against religious discrimination. Since asking job applicants about their availability on specific days tends to screen out employees with certain religious practices who need accommodation, employers should not ask this question during the hiring process.
The best way for the employer to gather this information is for the employer to state the normal work hours for the job and, after making it clear that you are not required to indicate the need for any religious-related absences during the scheduled work hours, to ask whether you are otherwise available to work those hours.
Then, after a position is offered, but before you are hired, your employer can inquire into the need for a religious accommodation and determine whether an accommodation is possible. In most cases whether or not a practice or belief is 'religious' is not at issue. If it is an issue, your employer has some room to ask you about your beliefs, to determine that they are sincere and religious beliefs.
Religious practices are not just those required by church or other religious group, but include moral or ethical beliefs as to what is right and wrong that are sincerely held with the strength of traditional religious views.
The fact that no religious group holds such beliefs or that religious groups to which others in the workplace belong may not accept such beliefs will not determine whether the beliefs are 'religious' in nature. Although this is very subjective, your employer has the right to try to figure out if the employee's beliefs are 'religious' by gathering information about your beliefs and their role in your life.
The law also requires that your beliefs be "sincerely held. The employer is entitled to ask some questions to determine the sincerity of your religious beliefs or practices, such as: Which religion is the source of this belief?
For how long have you believed that you cannot work on Sundays or your Sabbath day? Have the strength or nature of your religious beliefs changed recently? While the employer should not be unreasonable in trying to figure out whether your beliefs are "sincerely held," you should be prepared to respond to such questions, especially if your religious beliefs have recently changed or evolved to present a new conflict with work policies and practices.
Under certain circumstances, some religious institutions enjoy exemptions from federal laws covering religious discrimination. If the organization is a religious corporation, association, educational institution or society, then it is allowed under Title VII to hire only individuals of a particular religion to "perform work connected with the carrying on by such corporation, association, educational institution or society of its activities.
While such exemptions may provide a defense to a discrimination claim based upon religion, religious institutions are not permitted to discriminate on grounds other than religion merely because of the institution's religious character. Therefore, a Baptist institution could hire only Baptists, but could not refuse to hire African-Americans or applicants with disabilities. Some courts have ruled recently that such religious organizations can legally discriminate against employees who do not subscribe or conform to their beliefs.
In two cases involving gay employees who were terminated after their employers learned about their sexual orientation, courts upheld the right of both religious employers to terminate those employees because homosexuality was incompatible with the organizations' religious values. However, both cases occurred in states without a state law making it illegal to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. The outcome might have been different in states with these laws. Religious employers have also been allowed to fire pregnant employees for engaging in premarital sex where it was against the beliefs of the religion, but were required to show that all employees, including men or women who were known to engage in premarital sex even without a resulting pregnancy were treated similarly.
If an article of clothing that you wear, such as a turban, hijab, or yarmulke, is required by your religion, you should ask your employer for a religious accommodation to wear it at work. Your employer has a legal obligation to grant your request if it does not impose a burden, or an "undue hardship," under Title VII. While a dress code the is enforce on all employees is generally a valid reason for not allowing religious clothing, your employer may also try to justify denying you the ability to wear your religious clothing at work based on concerns about offending or losing customers; this is not valid.
Customer preference is never a justification for a discriminatory practice. Refusing to hire someone because customers or co-workers may be uncomfortable with that person's religion or national origin is just as illegal as refusing to hire that person because of religion or national origin in the first place.
This prohibition applies to other employment decisions as well, including promotion, transfers, work assignments and wages. If your employer wants to lawfully prevent you from wearing this clothing, the employer would need to show that allowing you to wear this clothing would pose an undue hardship on the business. Real or perceived customer preference would rarely, if ever, meet the undue hardship standard.
Health and safety concerns, however, may meet the undue hardship standard. For example, a factory required that assembly line workers wear pants to protect them from getting loose clothing caught in the machinery and from suffering burns. The company terminated an employee after she refused to wear pants and claimed that her religion requires women to wear dresses. The court held that reasonable accommodation cannot undermine the safety of plant operations or create undue hardship on the company by increasing job hazards, and therefore the firing was determined to be lawful.
If you have been asked to remove or not wear clothing that is part of your religious identity, you may want to ask your employer for an accommodation to wear this clothing. If the employer denies that request, then you should quickly consult with an attorney or federal or state anti-discrimination agency before wearing the clothing and risking discipline or termination, as it can be difficult to undo the harm once you have been terminated or otherwise disciplined.
For more information on this topic, please view our page on Dress Codes and Grooming Codes. It depends. A potential accommodation that is unlikely to cause the employer undue hardship is to allow you to observe your religious practices, such as prayer or Bible study, during time when it does not interfere with your work, like breaks or a lunch hour.
If going to another building for prayer takes longer than the time set aside for breaks, you can still can be accommodated if the nature of your work allows for flexible scheduling. Your employer can require you to make up any work time missed for religious observance. Using additional space for your religious observance, like using a conference room for prayers, would not impose an undue hardship in most circumstances.
However, when the room is needed for business purposes, your employer can deny its use for personal religious purposes. While you are entitled to express your religious beliefs, it should be in a non-coercive manner that respects the rights of other employees to hold different religious beliefs or no religious beliefs at all. Otherwise, other employees may claim that they are being subjected to a hostile, intimidating or offensive work environment, which could cause your employer to face a lawsuit because of its failure to prevent this situation from continuing.
Religious jokes or slurs, or offensive or obscene language intended to offend your religious beliefs, may be considered harassment , which courts have determined is a form of illegal discrimination. However, federal law does not prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or isolated incidents that are not extremely serious.
The conduct must be sufficiently frequent or severe to create a hostile work environment or result in a "tangible employment action," such as hiring, firing, promotion, or demotion. Just like s sexual harassment , religious harassment may occur in the form of "quid pro quo" harassment or a "hostile work environment". Quid pro quo : This type of harassment occurs when a harasser seeks to exchange a "tangible employment benefit," such as a promotion, for an individual's compliance with the harasser's religious demands, and when the demand is not complied with the harasser engages in an adverse employment action such as demotion or job loss.
Hostile Work Environment : This type of harassment occurs when there is offensive conduct directed at an employee due to that employee's religion, where the conduct is so severe or pervasive that it affects the terms or conditions of the employment and the employer fails to take reasonable steps to stop the conduct.
Courts will look at the totality of the circumstances to determine whether or not a hostile work environment occurred. Under the hostile work environment claim, an employer is liable if it knew or should have known religious harassment existed and failed to implement prompt action to stop the harassment. If a supervisor was the one creating the hostile work environment, the employer is liable. However, the employer may use a defense that the harassment resulted in firing, demotion, or any other tangible adverse employment action, and that the employer made an effort to quickly correct environment but the employee unreasonably failed to take advantage of any opportunities provided by the employer to correct the harm.
Yes, to a point. You have the legal right to discuss your own religious beliefs with a fellow employee if you wish to do so, but you cannot do so to the point that the employee feels you are being hostile, intimidating, or offensive.
Otherwise, your coworker may claim that he or she has been subjected to a hostile work environment on the basis of religion, and may have the right to sue the employer if the employer does not make you stop. So if your coworker objects to your discussion of religious subjects or you get any hint from your coworker or others that your religious advances are unwelcome, it is time to stop.
Your coworker has the legal right to discuss religious beliefs with you or other employees if he or she wishes to do so. However, your coworker cannot persist to the point of being hostile, intimidating, or offensive.
Otherwise, you can claim that you have been subjected to a hostile work environment on the basis of religion, and may have a valid legal claim against your employer if the employer does not make your coworker stop. When confronted by a coworker who wants to discuss religious matters, the first step is to let that person know that the discussion is making you uncomfortable and you do not want to continue discussing religion.
That may resolve the problem, as your coworker might not have understood your objections or discomfort with the subject. If the problem continues, however, you may need to notify your supervisor or your company's human resources department. Your company should have a policy for dealing with harassment complaints, including complaints of religious harassment, and once your employer is aware of the problem, it must take steps to address it. Courts have determined that the freedom not to believe is also a religious belief protected by Title VII and entitled to accommodation.
If you work for a non-religious employer, your employer it is unlikely that your employer will have a legitimate business reason for policies or practices that discriminate against someone for their lack of religious beliefs.
The personal religious beliefs of one supervisor or even the company's owner would rarely, if ever, be a legitimate basis for discrimination in this situation. However, some courts have held that religious organizations or organizations working with youth may discriminate against employees who do not subscribe to the organization's principles, as long as those principles have been universally applied to all employees.
For example, religious organizations have been allowed to terminate gay employees if homosexuality was incompatible with the religious organization's beliefs. Similarly, since religious organizations have specific principles condemning premarital sex, they have been allowed to terminate unmarried pregnant employees on the basis that they were terminated for engaging in premarital sex.
This example is slightly different because terminations for this reason have sometimes resulted in sex or pregnancy discrimination claims. This is because women are the only ones with the ability to show physical indications of primatial sex so there is no way to be sure the policy is enforced on men and women equally. A private employer does not discriminate based on religion if they based their business objectives or work objectives on religious principles. Individual employers are free to practice their religion.
However, it can become unlawful if the employer gives the perception that one must agree with the employer's religious views in order to become employed or advance in their job. An employee whose religious practices prohibit payment of union dues to a labor organization cannot be required to pay the dues, but may pay an equal sum to a charitable organization. If you do not object to all of the union's work, but merely the portion spent advocating in favor of a cause you do not support, another possible accommodation is discounting your union dues by a fraction of the amount of money spent on the union activity you do not agree with.
If this is part of your religious beliefs, you should let your employer and your union know this so that dues will not be withheld from your paycheck, and also make the appropriate arrangements for either paying your dues to a charitable organization or making a discounted dues payment.
Some companies have recently added an element of spirituality to their training programs that some employees object to because these programs may conflict with their own religious beliefs. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research.
Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Newsletters Donate My Account. Research Topics.
Share this link:. Majorities of Americans see at least some discrimination against Black, Hispanic and Asian people in the U. Muslims and Islam: Key findings in the U. Muslims are a growing presence in U. Department of Education. The civil rights laws enforced by the U. None of the laws that OCR enforces expressly address religious discrimination.
For example, OCR can investigate complaints that students were subjected to ethnic or ancestral slurs; harassed for how they look, dress, or speak in ways linked to ethnicity or ancestry e.
Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh students are examples of individuals who may be harassed for being viewed as part of a group that exhibits both ethnic and religious characteristics. Other federal agencies enforce laws that expressly prohibit religious discrimination by schools, colleges, and universities. For example, complaints of religious discrimination in employment can be brought to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission EEOC , in housing including dormitories to the U.
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