{"id":4708,"date":"2016-04-04T10:47:40","date_gmt":"2016-04-04T15:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.findlaw-admin.com\/ability-law\/smallbusiness\/employment-law-and-human-resources\/facts-about-religious-discrimination.html"},"modified":"2024-06-06T05:03:05","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T10:03:05","slug":"facts-about-religious-discrimination","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.findlaw.com\/smallbusiness\/employment-law-and-human-resources\/facts-about-religious-discrimination.html","title":{"rendered":"Facts About Religious Discrimination"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Facts About Religious Discrimination<\/h1>\n
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The Civil Rights Act of 1964<\/a> generally provides U.S. citizens and residents protection from various forms of discrimination in a variety of situations, including employer discrimination<\/a>. Under Title VII of the Act, employers are prohibited from discriminating against job applicants or employees based on their race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It’s important to note that this law applies to employers that employ 15 or more employees. However, it’s still a good idea to avoid employment discrimination even if you have less than 15 employees, especially since many state laws apply to smaller employers.<\/p>\n

This article focuses on the how employers can avoid policies and practices that could be considered religious discrimination. Very generally, Title VII of the Act<\/a> prohibits employers from discriminating against an individual because of his or her religion when hiring, firing, or during the course of the individual’s employment. The Act also requires employers to reasonably accommodate the religious practices of an employee or prospective employee, unless doing so would create an undue hardship upon the employer.<\/p>\n

You can visit FindLaw’s section on Religious Discrimination<\/a> to find more information and resources about this topic.<\/p>\n

Providing Reasonable Accommodations<\/h2>\n

Employers are not only required to avoid discriminating against a person for his or her religion, but must also provide reasonable accommodations for the religious beliefs and practices of employees or prospective employees. Some examples of reasonable accommodations are flexible scheduling, voluntary substitutions or swaps, job reassignments, and lateral transfers. However, if the accommodation would cause the employer undue hardship, the employer is not required to provide the accommodation.<\/p>\n

For example, if accommodation of the applicant or employee’s religious practice would cost the employer more than ordinary administrative costs, the employer can claim undue hardship without getting in trouble for religious discrimination at work<\/a>. Other times that an accommodation could cause undue hardship are in cases where an accommodation would:<\/p>\n