Religious Discrimination in the Workplace

There are various forms of religious discrimination in the workplace. If you have been denied work or a promotion, harassed at work, or denied an accommodation at work because of your religious beliefs or practices, or because of your lack of certain religious beliefs you may have recourse. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) prohibits employers from discriminatory conduct in the work place on basis of religion or spiritual faith.

With respect to religion, the EEOC sets out specifically what Title VII prohibits:

• treating applicants or employees differently based on their religious beliefs or practices – or lack thereof – in any aspect of employment, including recruitment, hiring, assignments, discipline, promotion, and benefits (disparate treatment);
• subjecting employees to harassment because of their religious beliefs or practices – or lack thereof – or because of the religious practices or beliefs of people with whom they associate (e.g., relatives, friends, etc.);
• denying a requested reasonable accommodation of an applicant’s or employee’s sincerely held religious beliefs or practices – or lack thereof – if an accommodation will not impose more than a de minimis cost or burden on business operations; ¹ and,
• retaliating against an applicant or employee who has engaged in protected activity, including participation (e.g., filing an EEO charge or testifying as a witness in someone else’s EEO matter), or opposition to religious discrimination (e.g., complaining to human resources department about alleged religious discrimination).

There are a number of protected classes that fall within the purview of religious discrimination.  These include the traditional organized religions such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.  However, they also include those faiths that are not common, not part of a formal ministry, lack a large number of members, or seem illogical to members of a more secure faith.  Atheists are also protected under Title VII.  The lack of belief or membership in a particular faith is also protected.  Specially-defined “religious organizations” and “religious educational institutions” are exempt from certain religious discrimination provisions, and a “ministerial exception” bars Title VII claims by employees who serve in clergy roles.

The EEOC sets out additional protections under Title VII and defining the scope of what is protected:

Title VII’s prohibition against disparate (different) treatment based on religion generally functions like its prohibition against disparate treatment based on race, color, sex, or national origin. Disparate treatment violates the statute whether the difference is motivated by bias against or preference toward an applicant or employee due to his religious beliefs, practices, or observances – or lack thereof. For example, except to the extent permitted by the religious organization or ministerial exceptions:

• employers may not refuse to recruit, hire, or promote individuals of a certain religion, impose stricter promotion requirements for persons of a certain religion, or impose more or different work requirements on an employee because of that employee’s religious beliefs or practices
• employers may not refuse to hire an applicant simply because he does not share the employer’s religious beliefs, and conversely may not select one applicant over another based on a preference for employees of a particular religion
• employment agencies may not comply with requests from employers to engage in discriminatory recruitment or referral practices, for example by screening out applicants who have names often associated with a particular religion (e.g., Mohammed)
• employers may not exclude an applicant from hire merely because he or she may need a reasonable accommodation that could be provided absent undue hardship.

The prohibition against disparate treatment based on religion also applies to disparate treatment of religious expression in the workplace. For example, if an employer allowed one secretary to display a Bible on her desk at work while telling another secretary in the same workplace to put the Quran on his desk out of view because co-workers “will think you are making a political statement, and with everything going on in the world right now we don’t need that around here,” this would be differential treatment in violation of Title VII.

https://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/qanda_religion.html