- Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals based on their religion regarding hiring, firing, and employment conditions. Employers must provide reasonable religious accommodations to employees to avoid conflicts, unless it causes undue hardship to business operations. - Employers should try to accommodate employee requests for religious observances like not working during Sabbath or attending mass by allowing schedule changes and flexible work hours when possible. However, employers are not required to meet requests that significantly disrupt business. - Courts give broad protection to sincerely held religious beliefs regardless of whether others see them as acceptable, logical, or consistent. Employers must accommodate religious dress and practices unless it poses safety issues or undue

1. Audra Bakalars
HDFS 460
Personal Philosophy
In today’s world, it can be very common for an employer to have people of
varying religious beliefs working for them. Religion in the American workplace
can be tricky for employers and employees to work through, and conflict can
happen easily. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) prohibits
employers from discriminating against individuals because of their religion in
hiring, firing, and other terms and conditions of employment. The only exception
to this is religious organizations.
It is also in the best interest of the employer to accommodate religious beliefs
and traditions of employees as long as it is reasonable to do so. When it is not
reasonable for employers to accommodate religious beliefs and traditions, it
should be because it places undo hardship on the employer. Undo hardship
disrupts business operations and causes difficulties and/or expenses for the
employer. It can negatively impact productivity in manners such as sales, output,
quality, employee morale, and business transactions.
Employees of different religions will most likely have different requests based
on their faith. A Jewish employee may request not to work during Sabbath or a
Christian employee may want off to attend mass on Sundays. Providing
reasonable accommodation for these employes will help to eliminate conflict in
the workplace. Employers should try and arrange to allow their employees to
meet their religious obligations whenever possible. Some ways that an employer

2. could do this would be to allow shift switches, being flexible in scheduling, or
using lunch time to leave early. Employees may be required to use vacation days
or paid time of to meet their required accommodations.
Employers should not refuse to accommodate their employee’s religious
requirements. They may deny requests because it creates undue hardship to the
business, but this must be proven. An employer is not required to meet all
religious requirements of their employees, however they should make a valid
effort to do so. Employers should not schedule trainings on days that would
completely stop an employee from participating in religious events such as
holidays or Sabbaths.
The federal laws of Title VII apply to companies of 15 or more employees.
State and local laws may also be in place to protect smaller companies. It seems
as though employers have started to realize that accommodating religious beliefs
not only protects themselves legally, it also seems to increase employee morale.
Employees tend to feel valued when their employer does what they can to
accommodate them practicing their faith.
Law says that sincerely held religious beliefs must be accommodated. Courts
rarely question the sincerity of a person’s belief. The law was intended to give
people protection of and accommodate a wide range of religious practices and
beliefs. Therefore, religious beliefs do need to be acceptable, logical, common, or
consistent to others to be protected in a court of law. These laws were put into
place to protect religious beliefs and not those affiliated with political beliefs.

3. Employers should not make accommodations based on non-theological
preferences that are rooted culturally, politically, or based on a person’s heritage.
Employers should attempt to make accommodations for employees that want
to maintain a certain physical appearance or dress for religious reasons. This is
as long as there is no undue hardship to the employer. Safety is a very important
factor for employees, employes, and customers. Safety concerns will typically
constitute undue hardship, and may be a reason as to why an employer will not
accommodate a person’s request based on their faith.
Employees should never inquire about a person’s religious beliefs during an
interview or on a job application-doing so is illegal. Employers should not
blatantly ask a future employee what church they attend or if their religion will
prevent them from working certain days. A way around this in an interview would
be to ask an employee if there are certain days and/or hours that they would not
be able to work. After an employee is hired, they should alert their employer of
their religious practices that require accommodations.
Laws about religious accommodations for certain topics seem to still be
evolving. A person may view homosexuality as against their God’s word, and not
want to participate in signing a diversity agreement at their office that respects
and values differences amongst coworkers. In a case such as this, employers
may have to accommodate this person’s religious point of view as long as it
doesn’t cause undue hardship, but they will also want to try to resolve any

4. conflict between the employee’s and employer’s needs, as well as trying to
resolve conflict among coworkers.
Employers should always protect employes from co-worker harassment that
is based on religious beliefs. Employers could be liable if they know that such
harassment is happening and fail to prevent it. Joking and teasing about religion
may not be considered discrimination or harassment, but it still should be
avoided.
Employees can allow prayer groups at work, but participation in these groups
can never be mandatory. There should never be any consequences for not
participating in such groups. An example of this sort of discrimination would be a
supervisor giving preferred shifts to employees that participate in a prayer group
that they lead. Doing so would be considered discriminatory and could lead to
legal action by. Any employees that are pressured to attend prayer services at
work could cause an employer to be liable for a hostile work environment.
A hostile work environment happens when employees harass a coworker
based on their religious beliefs, to the point where it creates an abusive and/or
intimidating work environment. This involves severe insults and threats, or words
that are continuous and meant to harass the employee based on their religion.
Employers can be liable if they knew, or should have known, about hostile
environments in the workplace.
Employees should be allowed to express their religious views at work as long
as it does not cause undue hardship to the company. Examples of this would be

5. crosses displayed in work spaces by Catholics, Muslim women wearing scarves
in a display of modesty, or yarmulkes worn by Jewish men. Employees should be
made aware that they are not to make any religious expression that could be
seen by customers as the beliefs of the employer. Employers may also stop
religious expression if it creates a hostile work environment for other employees,
disrupts the workflow, or is demeaning to customers.
Taking this class has been very eye-opening to me. It has had a great impact
on my personal life, as well my professional life. This class has made me realize
that in an age where there is so much information about virtually anything online,
there still appears to be a lot of incomprehension about religions .
This is the type of class that I feel should be taught at a much earlier time in
every classroom across the world. I feel this way because there is so much war
and hostility that happens because of religion. It may be a possibility that if
people were exposed to the different religions throughout the world at a young
age, they could have a broader perspective in understanding other’s lifestyles
based on their religious beliefs.
I appreciate all I have learned in this class. It has provided me with a valuable
foundation for understanding others based on their religious beliefs. I feel as
though I refer to this class, the research I did for it, and the paper I wrote for a
very long time.