1. Supervisors Advanced Series Installment # 5: Religion & the Workplace
5/7/2019
Supervisors Advanced Series Installment # 5: Religion & the Workplace

2. 5/7/2019
Part 1: Instruction 2

3. Laws and Policies Prohibiting Religious Discrimination
5/7/2019
Overview
Laws and Policies Prohibiting Religious Discrimination
What is Religious Discrimination?
Religious Harassment & Segregation
Employees’ Religious Rights
Reasonable Accommodation (Religious)
Religious Garb and Grooming in the Workplace
Requesting Religious Accommodation
Undue Hardship
Common Methods of Accommodation
Best Practices for Eradicating Religious Discrimination

4. Religious Discrimination
5/7/2019
Religious Discrimination
Laws and Policies Prohibiting Religious Discrimination
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII)
Department of the Navy (DON) EEO Policy Statement
DON Workplace Anti-Harassment Policy Statement
BUPERSINST Standards and Procedures Governing the Accommodation of Religious Practices
DODI Accommodation of Religious Practices Within the Military Services

5. What is Religious Discrimination?
5/7/2019
What is Religious Discrimination?
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals because of their religion in hiring, firing, or any other terms and conditions of employment. This includes traditional religious beliefs, non-traditional religious beliefs, and non-belief
The law also prohibits job segregation based on religion, such as assigning an employee to a non-customer contact position because of actual or feared customer preference.

6. What is Religious Discrimination?
5/7/2019
What is Religious Discrimination?
Religious discrimination involves:
Treating a person (an applicant or employee) unfavorably because of his or her religious beliefs
The law protects not only people who belong to traditional, organized religions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, but also non-tradisional religions such as Rastafarianism and Wiccan, as well as others who have sincerely held non-traditional religious, ethical or moral beliefs.
Religious discrimination can also involve treating someone differently because that person is married to (or associated with) an individual of a particular religion.

7. What is Religious Discrimination?
5/7/2019
What is Religious Discrimination?
The law forbids discrimination when it comes to any aspect of employment, including hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, fringe benefits, and any other term or condition of employment.
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) or compel them to participate in religious rites or prayers if they object on grounds of non-belief.

8. Religious Harassment & Segregation
5/7/2019
Religious Harassment & Segregation
It is illegal to harass a person because of his or her religion.
Harassment can include, for example, offensive remarks about a person's religious beliefs or practices, or being barraged with unwelcome religious messages or proselytizing.
Although the law doesn't prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or isolated incidents that aren't very serious, harassment is illegal when it is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in an adverse employment decision (such as the victim being fired or demoted).
Even if offhand comments or isolated incidents are not illegal, they still may constitute a violation of policy, and can be used as evidence of discriminatory animus in an EEO complaint.

9. Religious Harassment & Segregation
5/7/2019
Religious Harassment & Segregation
The harasser can be the victim's supervisor, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or someone who is not an employee of the employer, such as a client or customer.
Title VII also prohibits workplace or job segregation based on religion (including religious garb and grooming practices), such as assigning an employee to a non-customer contact position because of actual or feared customer preference.

10. Employees’ Religious Rights
5/7/2019
Employees’ Religious Rights
The First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits the government from making any law that infringes on an individual’s right to religious practice. This is known as the “free exercise clause.”
However, the First Amendment also prohibits the government from establishing or endorsing any particular religion. This is known as the “establishment clause.”
Both of these clauses play a significant role in how religious issues are addressed in the federal workplace.

11. Employees’ Religious Rights
5/7/2019
Employees’ Religious Rights
KEY CONCEPT
As a general rule, the government cannot restrict an employee’s personal religious expression in the federal workplace.
Exceptions:
If the employee’s interest in the expression of religious beliefs is outweighed by the government’s interest in the efficient provision of public services
If the employee’s expression intrudes on the legitimate rights of other employees
If the employee’s expression creates the appearance, to a reasonable observer, of an official endorsement of religion

12. Employees’ Religious Rights
5/7/2019
Employees’ Religious Rights
Examples of permitted religious expression in the federal workplace:
Keeping scriptures (Bible, Qu’ran, etc.) on an employee’s desk and reading it during breaks
In informal settings, such as cafeterias and hallways, employees are entitled to discuss their religious views with one another, subject only to the same rules of order as apply to other employee expression.
Employees are entitled to display religious messages on items of clothing to the same extent that they are permitted to display other comparable messages.
Employees generally may wear religious medallions over their clothes or so that they are otherwise visible.

13. Employees’ Religious Rights
5/7/2019
Employees’ Religious Rights
As a general matter, proselytizing is as entitled to constitutional protection as any other form of speech -- as long as a reasonable observer would not interpret the expression as government endorsement of religion.
However:
If religious activities interfere with job performance, it is permissible for a supervisor to ask an employee to refrain from such activities, just as for any other personal endeavor interfering with work.
Though agencies are entitled to regulate such employee speech based on reasonable predictions of disruption, they should not restrict speech based on merely hypothetical concerns
Employees must refrain from religious proselytizing when a fellow employee asks that it stop or otherwise demonstrates that it is unwelcome.

14. Employees’ Religious Rights
5/7/2019
Employees’ Religious Rights
Religious expression should not be permitted if it is part of a larger pattern of verbal attacks on fellow employees (or a specific employee) not sharing the faith of the speaker. Such speech, by virtue of its excessive or harassing nature, may constitute religious harassment or create a hostile work environment
A person holding supervisory authority over an employee may not, explicitly or implicitly, insist that the employee participate in religious activities as a condition of continued employment, promotion, salary increases, preferred job assignments, or any other incidents of employment. Nor may a supervisor insist that an employee refrain from participating in religious activities outside the workplace except pursuant to otherwise legal, neutral restrictions that apply to employees' off-duty conduct and expression in general (e.g., restrictions on political activities prohibited by the Hatch Act)

15. Religious Accommodation
5/7/2019
Religious Accommodation
The law requires an employer or other covered entity to reasonably accommodate an employee's religious beliefs or practices, unless doing so would cause an undue hardship. This means an employer may be required to make reasonable adjustments to the work environment that will allow an employee to practice his or her religion.
When an employee or applicant needs a dress or grooming accommodation for religious reasons, he or she should notify the employer that he or she needs such an accommodation for religious reasons.

16. Religious Garb and Grooming in the Workplace
5/7/2019
Religious Garb and Grooming in the Workplace
Generally, religious clothing and grooming is an acceptable expression of religion in the workplace. 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); or
Adhering to shaving or hair length observances (e.g., Sikh uncut hair and beard, Rastafarian dreadlocks, or Jewish peyes (sidelocks)).

17. Requesting Religious Accommodation
5/7/2019
Requesting Religious Accommodation
The employee must:
Have a bona fide religious belief which conflicts with the policies, procedures or practices of their employer
Inform the agency regarding the belief and the conflict.
The employer must:
Make a good faith effort to reasonably accommodate the employee’s religious beliefs
Be able to demonstrate that the available accommodations would result in an undue hardship to its operations despite its best efforts to accommodate

18. 5/7/2019
Undue Hardship
An employer does not have to accommodate an employee's religious beliefs or practices if doing so would cause undue hardship to the employer.
An accommodation may cause undue hardship if it is costly, compromises workplace safety, decreases workplace efficiency, infringes on the rights of other employees, or requires other employees to do more than their share of potentially hazardous or burdensome work.
Though an agency need not make an accommodation that will result in more than a de minimis cost to the agency, that cost or hardship must be real rather than speculative or hypothetical.

19. Common Methods of Accommodation in the Workplace
5/7/2019
Common Methods of Accommodation in the Workplace
Examples of some common religious accommodations include :
Scheduling changes or flexible scheduling
Voluntary substitutes or swaps of shifts and assignments
Lateral transfer and/or change of job assignment
Modifying workplace practice, policies, and/or procedures
Dress and grooming standards
Use of employer facilities (quiet area for prayer)
Tests and other selection procedures
Exemption from union dues or agency fees
Excusing individuals from employer-sponsored programs

20. Best Practices for Eradicating Religious Discrimination
5/7/2019
Best Practices for Eradicating Religious Discrimination
Employers can reduce the risk of discriminatory employment decisions by establishing written objective criteria for evaluating candidates for hire or promotion and applying those criteria consistently to all candidates.
In conducting job interviews, selecting officials can ensure nondiscriminatory treatment by asking the same questions of all applicants for a particular job or category of job and inquiring about matters directly related to the position in question.

21. Best Practices for Eradicating Religious Discrimination
5/7/2019
Best Practices for Eradicating Religious Discrimination
Supervisors can reduce the risk of religious discrimination claims by carefully and timely recording the accurate business reasons for disciplinary or performance-related actions and sharing these reasons with the affected employees.
Supervisors should consult with more experienced managers, EEO, legal, and/or human resources professionals when addressing difficult issues.

22. Best Practices for Eradicating Religious Discrimination
5/7/2019
Best Practices for Eradicating Religious Discrimination
If a supervisor is confronted with customer biases, e.g., an adverse reaction to being served by an employee due to religious garb, the employer should consider engaging with and educating the customers regarding any misperceptions they may have and/or the equal employment opportunity laws.
Employers should have a well-publicized and consistently applied anti-harassment policy

23. Best Practices for Eradicating Religious Discrimination
5/7/2019
Best Practices for Eradicating Religious Discrimination
Supervisors should allow religious expression among employees to the same extent that they allow other types of personal expression that are not harassing or disruptive.
To prevent conflicts from escalating to the level of a Title VII violation, employers should immediately intervene when they become aware of objectively abusive or insulting conduct, even absent a complaint.

24. Best Practices for Eradicating Religious Discrimination
5/7/2019
Best Practices for Eradicating Religious Discrimination
While supervisors are permitted to engage in certain religious expression, they should avoid expression that might – due to their supervisory authority – reasonably be perceived by subordinates as coercive, even when not so intended.
Supervisors should inform employees that they will make reasonable efforts to accommodate the employees’ religious practices.

25. Best Practices for Eradicating Religious Discrimination
5/7/2019
Best Practices for Eradicating Religious Discrimination
Supervisors should allow religious expression among employees to the same extent that they allow other types of personal expression that are not harassing or disruptive.
Managers and supervisors should carefully listen to employees to recognize religious accommodation requests from employees. Follow-up questions are key.
Employers should consider developing internal procedures for processing religious accommodation requests.

26. 5/7/2019
Part 2: Scenarios 26

27. 5/7/2019
MCIPAC EEO Office Contact Information
MCIPAC EEO Office
Building 5717 Room 106 and 103 Or
/5423
Website: