Maine Religious Discrimination
Posted by Tamara
Before 9/11, a Muslim woman worked on her Alamo car rental job while wearing her head scarf without encountering problems from her supervisor. The supervisor, in fact, had given permission to do so. The woman’s head scarf bore the Alamo logo.
After 9/11, she was fired for wearing the scarf. She challenged the firing and was awarded more than $250,000.
The case shows that religious discrimination in the workplace is against the law. Employers in Maine and elsewhere must make what is called “reasonable accommodations” to a worker’s sincerely held religious beliefs.
In another case, two Muslim men working for a county government in Pennsylvania were disciplined because they refused to shave their beards. The county’s dress code required men to be clean-shaven. The case went to court and the judge ruled that making an exception to the dress code based on religious practice was a “reasonable accommodation.” The judge did rule, however, that if the beards posed a health risk to the employees themselves or to other workers, the county’s regulations could legally have been enforced.
The applicable law in these cases is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made it illegal to discriminate in the workplace based on religion, but on color, race, gender, or country of origin. Workplace discrimination might include hiring and firing, discipline, training, benefits, pay, and promotions.
Changes in an employee’s work schedule, uniform, dress code, or specific hours have all been ruled to be “reasonable accommodations” to a worker’s religious beliefs. Jewish employees should be permitted to take time off for Rosh Hashanah and Christian employees for Christmas.
In the examples in the two cases, adjusting the dress code would have been “reasonable accommodations” to the employees’ beliefs.
The other key element in cases like these is “sincerely held” religious beliefs. The law will not support employees who pretend to be Jewish one month and Christian another, simply to get extra holiday time off. If the employee is not following the tenets of his or her claimed religion but appears to be posing in order to get concessions from management.
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