Religious discrimination occurs when an employee is treated unfairly due to their religious beliefs and practices. They may also have requested accommodation for their religion and been denied by the employer.
These are some more examples of religious discrimination in the workplace:
If any of the above has happened to you, we recommend that you contact us, as you have experienced religious discrimination. This type of discrimination comes in many different forms, so your experience may not have been listed. You will want to communicate with us so we can determine what laws were broken in your unique case.
Your employer is required to provide religious accommodations, even if you have not asked for one. For example, if you are considered to be breaking the dress code while religious garb, actions taken against you at work would be against the law. According to the Supreme Court, religious clothing should always be assumed to be an accommodation, without you having to ask.
If you have been continuously denied accommodation after submitting a polite written request to your employer, you will want to consider filing a grievance. If you are part of a union, you can also file this through the union.
For those who can not resolve this issue on their own, we are here to help. We can offer advice as well as our religious discrimination legal services.
They can not. You will want to let your employer know in advance of any days that you observe for religious purposes. It helps if you give them this information in writing, so that you can save a copy in case religious discrimination takes place.
Your employer is required to make those accommodations, as long as they are reasonable. This includes time off for the Sabbath or other observed holy or religious days. You may want to make up the time or work out some other situation with your employer. It is important that the two of you communicate beforehand.
At the end of the day, your employer is not allowed to stop you from observing religious days, no matter the religion you are a part of.
If your employer can demonstrate undue hardship on the days you need off, they are not required to accommodate your religion. For example, if your employer does not give you a day off because no other employees are available to cover your shift, this would not count as religious discrimination. However, they will need to inform you of their reasoning.
After hearing their reasoning, you will want to consider whether or not it sounds truthful. You may want to consider talking with your coworkers to determine if no one actually has off. There have been cases of employers faking undue hardship in order to not give someone off for their religious holiday. This would be considered religious discrimination.
Retaliation can occur and it does count as religious discrimination. This is when an employer takes action against you after you asked for religious accommodation of any kind. You would be protected under laws were this to happen to you.
The act of retaliation does not need to happen at the workplace or while you are on the clock. It can occur at any time. It does not need to be successful either- as long as there was an attempt to retaliate against you, it counts.
These laws also apply when seeking jobs. You can not be denied work or a chance at an interview for your religion. For example, you observe Sabbath from Friday at sunset until Saturday at sunset. During an interview you were told you would not be considered for the position because you would not be available during those days- this is religious discrimination.
The law protects you during application screenings. Employers are not allowed to remove someone from the process because they can not work on certain days. They are not allowed to ask about your availability on specific days during hiring.
They should always state the normal working routine. From there, you can let them know what days you can and can not work. You should never be removed from the hiring process for your religion.
If you came to this page, you know that something isn’t right. You want to find out what your rights are and what actions you can take. The best thing you can do is give us a call so that we can discuss the next best steps. This is a free, private, and no-obligation consultation. We’ll discuss the facts and help you determine the best path to take.
