Religion is one of the issues that employers have to deal with when handling the employees. Employees have varied religious practices; some may need permissions to practice their religion within the workplace premises while others have activities, they need to do off the work premises. When the employer has different beliefs from those of the employees, they may find themselves not accommodating the employees' religion enough because it may have no significance. This paper holds the view that the employers should not force the employees to violate their religious beliefs through engaging in activities that their religion does not support.
To begin with, it is unlawful to violate the employees’ religious believes. According to the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964 under title VII, it is against the law to harass employees based on religion. The harassment occurs when employees are forced to leave their religious beliefs, change, or embrace a new religious practice as a condition to continue working in a certain place. It can also be in the form of giving negative remarks to employees due to their religion. The law also protects those who don't have any religious beliefs against being forced to engage in religious practices against their will.
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Secondly, it is costly for an organization that forces the employees to engage in activities against their religious practices. Discrimination based religion attracts a lawsuit. When the employees are discriminated against, they may report the case to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. This is a body that deals with discrimination cases in workplaces in the U.S. the commission provided that religious beliefs can either be theistic or non-theistic. It can also be the morals and one’s ethical beliefs. These practices include going to places of worship, dressing in a certain way, and dietary restrictions. If the employer forces the employees to go against their norms, an organization will end up spending millions of cash. For example, in 2019, 9.9 dollars were fined on religious discrimination organizations according to the EEOC report. This drains organization resources that could have been used productively.
Forcing the employees to engage in activities against their religion lowers business productivity. According to Heliot et al. (2019), a person's religious beliefs significantly affect performance in jobs. When employees are discriminated against, they feel separated from the organization because they cannot live the organizational values. Baker (2016) observed that being religious is inside a person and influences how they interact with others, do business, eat, and all other aspects of life. Thus, failure to take care of religion is simply failing to care about the employees. Organizations that are not sensitive to employees' religions demotivate them, and they do not work as a team. The use of coercive power leads to a lack of self-direction in the workplace leading to poor performance. The employees may also opt-in moving away from such organizations. This leads to a high employee turnover rate, thus low performance.
Discrimination based on religion is evident when the employer does not accommodate a certain religious belief. For instance, if a catholic member requests to be given an off on a Friday to attend a service and the permission is denied even when the off can be moved without causing disturbances in the schedule, it is religious discrimination. Similarly, if a Seventh Day Adventist member is forced to work on a Saturday or a Muslim denied an opportunity to dress in an Islamic way, it is a form of discrimination. An employer may also decide not to employ an applicant because they belong to a certain religion. All these are forms of discrimination which is against the law.
Although the employers are not allowed to discriminate employees based on religion, certain exceptions are provided by the law where the discrimination is allowed due to "undue hardship." According to EEOC, Accommodating a certain religion causes an undue hardship if it is costly to the business, it leads to inefficiency in the other areas of the job, takes away the rights of other employees or their job benefits, leads to insecurity in the job, it violates the seniority or CBA or the other workers have to be burdened with duties to accommodate an employee’s religious practice. However, this should not be used as a scapegoat to discriminate employees. To declare a certain accommodation an "undue hardship," the employer must clearly show the employees' evidence. Mere assumptions are not allowed to be used to deny the employee accommodation according to EEOC. In such cases, the employer should look for alternative ways of accommodation.
There are common ways of accommodating religion in organizations. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act provides that an employer can accommodate the employees' religion through scheduling changes, giving them substitutions, and shifting and swapping the employees. In case the employee's task conflicts the religious beliefs, the employer can either change the task or transfer the employee laterally. The employer can also make exceptions on how the employees should dress in case one has issues with the dressing due to religion. In case the employee requests to use a room or facility for religious practice, the employer should grant permission, among many other ways of accommodating, depending on the situation at hand.
Conclusively, the employer is not allowed to discriminate employees based on religion except for undue hardships. Accommodating the religions will lead to improved employees’ performance, cut on costs of handling cases on religious discrimination, and avoid unlawful acts. An employer should use different ways to accommodate the employees, depending on the accommodation's situations and nature.
References
Baker, D. (2016, September 9). The ultra-Orthodox Jews combining tech and the Torah. BBC News . Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37300929
Heliot, Y., Gleibs, I., Coyle, A., Rousseau, D., & Rojon, C. (2019). Religious Identity in the Workplace: A Systematic Review, Research Agenda, and Practical Implications . Journal of human resource management 59 (2): 153-173. https://doi:101002/hrm21983 .
