Religion and the Workplace

Workplaces are not "religion-free" zones. However, employers must not only accommodate the religious interests of their employees, they also must guard against abuse of religion in the workplace.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of l964 prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals because of their religion in hiring, firing, and other terms and conditions of employment. Title VII covers employers with 15 or more employees, including federal, state and local governments. This not only means that an employer cannot refuse to hire someone because of his or her faith, but also that an employer must generally allow employees to discuss religious matters at work if the employer allows employees to discuss other non-work related issues at work, for example. Further, employees generally may wear religious jewelry if non-religious jewelry is permitted and hold devotional studies in conference rooms if other employee groups are allowed to do the same for other non-work-related interests. As the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has said, "an employer may not place more restrictions on religious expression than on other forms of expression that have a comparable effect on workplace efficiency."

Moreover, employers have the responsibility to accommodate employees' religious practice unless doing so would cause an "undue hardship" to the employer. Thus, an employer might be required to permit a Muslim woman to wear a headscarf on the job, for example, or to allow a person who observes a Saturday Sabbath to have that day off. However, according to the U.S. Supreme Court, an employer has no obligation to accommodate an employee's request for accommodation if doing so would create anything more than a de minimis burden on the employer.

This weak reading of Title VII's accommodation requirement has prompted some members of Congress to introduce the Workplace Religious Freedom Act (WRFA) to remedy this situation. For more information on issues regarding the accommodation of religion within the workplace, see the transcript of a 2002 Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life event, Reconciling Obligations: Accommodating Religious Practice on the Job

On the other side of the coin, ensuring that employees are not discriminated against in the workplace because of their faith also means that employees must not be coerced to participate in religious activities by their employers and that they must not be subject to religious harassment. Religious harassment would not occur simply because one employee evangelizes a co-worker once, for example, but it could happen if an employer fails to intervene when one employee consistently fails to respect another employee's request that the evangelism cease.

Supervisors have the right to engage in some kinds of speech about religion in the workplace, but they also have special responsibilities because they often have substantial control over employees and the workplace, including hiring, firing and terms and conditions of people's employment. Due to this power, their actions may seem coercive, even when they are not intended to be.

Thus, employers have to walk a careful line here, protecting and accommodating religious expression while guarding against religious harassment and other abuse of religion in the workplace.

If an employee works for the government, then constitutional rules also will apply. In light of the federal constitutional prohibition on government promotion of religion, for example, governmental employers must ensure that employees' religious practices do not create the appearance that the government is endorsing religion. In short, supervisors and employees in the governmental workplace must not engage in activities that a reasonable observer would interpret as governmental encouragement or discouragement of religion generally or of a particular religion. These issues are discussed in greater detail in the 1997 guidelines on religious expression and religious exercise in the federal workplace.

© Center for Religion and Public Affairs 2006