The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued helpful guidance on how federal employment discrimination law applies to religious dress and grooming practices. Here are highlights of the guidance.
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In most instances, federal law requires employers to make exceptions to their usual rules or preferences to permit applicants and employees to observe religious dress and grooming practices. Examples of religious dress and grooming practices include:
- Wearing religious clothing or articles (e.g., a Muslim hijab (headscarf), a Sikh turban, or a Christian cross).
- Observing a religious prohibition against wearing certain garments (e.g., a Muslim, Pentecostal Christian, or Orthodox Jewish woman’s practice of not wearing pants or short skirts).
- Adhering to shaving or hair length observances (e.g., Sikh uncut hair and beard, Rastafarian dreadlocks, or Jewish peyes (sidelocks)).
Here are some of the most important questions and answers from the guidance, which also contains a number of practical examples. Note: follow this link to see the guidance in its entirety.)
What is the federal law relating to religious dress and grooming in the workplace?
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e, et seq., as amended (“Title VII”),prohibits employers with at least 15 employees (including private sector, state, and local government employers), as well as employment agencies, unions, and federal government agencies, from discriminating in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Title VII prohibits among other things:
- Disparate treatment based on religion in recruitment, hiring, promotion, benefits, training, job duties, termination, or any other aspect of employment (except that “religious organizations” as defined under Title VII are permitted to prefer members of their own religion in deciding whom to employ);
- Denial of reasonable accommodation for sincerely held religious practices, unless the accommodation would cause an undue hardship for the employer;
- Workplace or job segregation based on religion;
- Workplace harassment based on religion; and
- Retaliation for requesting an accommodation (whether granted or not granted), for filing a discrimination charge with the EEOC, for testifying, assisting, or participating in any manner in an EEOC investigation or EEO proceeding, or for opposing discrimination.
Note that there may be state or local laws in your jurisdiction that have protections that are parallel to or broader than those in Title VII.
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Does Title VII apply to all aspects of religious practice or belief?
Yes. Title VII protects all aspects of religious observance, practice, and belief, and defines religion very broadly to include not only traditional, organized religions such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, but also religious beliefs that are new, uncommon, not part of a formal church or sect, only subscribed to by a small number of people, or may seem illogical or unreasonable to others.
Religious practices may be based on theistic beliefs or nontheistic moral or ethical beliefs as to what is right or wrong that are sincerely held with the strength of traditional religious views. Religious observances or practices include, for example, attending worship services, praying, wearing religious garb or symbols, displaying religious objects, adhering to certain dietary rules, proselytizing or other forms of religious expression, or refraining from certain activities.
Moreover, an employee’s belief or practice can be “religious” under Title VII even if it is not followed by others in the same religious sect, denomination, or congregation, or even if the employee is unaffiliated with a formal religious organization.
The law’s protections also extend to those who are discriminated against or need accommodation because they profess no religious beliefs. For example, an employer that is not a religious organization (as legally defined under Title VII) cannot make employees wear religious garb or articles (such as a cross) if they object on grounds of nonbelief.
Because this definition is so broad, whether or not a practice or belief is religious typically is not disputed in Title VII religious discrimination cases.
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What if an employer questions whether the applicant’s or employee’s asserted religious practice is sincerely held?
Title VII’s accommodation requirement only applies to religious beliefs that are “sincerely held.” However, just because an individual’s religious practices may deviate from commonly-followed tenets of the religion, the employer should not automatically assume that his or her religious observance is not sincere.
However, if an employer has a legitimate reason for questioning the sincerity or even the religious nature of a particular belief or practice for which accommodation has been requested, it may ask an applicant or employee for information reasonably needed to evaluate the request.
In tomorrow’s Advisor, more from the EEOC guidance, plus we announce a free webcast on Building a WOW! Recognition Culture.