Religious discrimination can be illegal.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits religious discrimination at work.

Violating employers face:

• Lost wages awards
• Additional damages, called "punitive" and "emotional distress" damages running from $50,000 to $300,000, depending on the size of the employer

With distracting and expensive lawsuits and large damages awards looming for the employer who guesses wrong, how can employers and employees navigate through the shoals of Title VII law?

Like race, sex, age, or disability-based discrimination, Title VII prohibits employers from:

• Hiring
• Firing
• Promoting
• Paying

individuals based on their religion.

A few narrowly-defined exceptions include:

• Hiring a minister for a church
• A pilot flying helicopters to Mecca, where Muslim religious doctrine calls for the death of non-Muslims entering the zone of Mecca (yes, it's a real case, and a non-Muslim did apply)

But Title VII has special rules requiring an employer to accommodate an individual's religious beliefs and practices, if, under standards established by the US Supreme Court, bending of the rules won't pose an undue burden.

How does the employer know when it's being taken for a ride, or if the request for a break flows from a sincerely held religious belief? Can the employer insist on a note from the minister, or demand proof from the Bible that the individual's needs are religiously-based? What if other employees complain about "preferences" and "special breaks," and say "what about my religion?"

Congress amended Title VII in 1972 to make clear that Title VII protects all aspects of religious observance and practice, to avoid employers picking and choosing among religions or aspects of religious practice.

The EEOC has issued interpretative guidelines to make clear that any religious belief or practice, mainstream or not, is protected, provided there are "moral or ethical beliefs as to what's right and wrong which are sincerely held with the strength of traditional religious views."

Apart from the blatant case where an employer refuses to hire someone because she's Jewish (for something other than a priest job), or insists that employees attend prayer over their objection as the price of holding a job, an employer risks a religious bias claim only where it knows that there's a clash between its business rules and an employee's religious beliefs.

An employer may need to modify its workplace practices to accommodate an individual's religious beliefs where:

• An employee has a bona fide religious belief that conflicts with an employment requirement
• The employee informed the employer of his or her belief and the conflict
• Changing the rule won't pose an undue burden for the employer.

The US Supreme Court ruled in 1977 that even a minimal burden may be an undue burden, especially if the modification the employee wants would bump a more senior employee, break union seniority rules, or impose a significant cost on the employer.

Under the rules announced by the US Supreme Court in a 1986 case, the employee doesn't get her first choice of accommodation, if the employer has another that will work equally well.

In a diverse religious culture, Title VII tries to maintain a balance, which allows individuals to be religious and still work, while not imposing burdens on employees of other religious persuasions.

Questions for Your Attorney

• Are employees entitled to not work on Sundays if their religion says that it's a day of rest?
• What if the traditional religious clothing of an employee is dangerous to wear in the work setting?
• Do I have to accomodate the beliefs of a religion that just started less than a year ago?

Lloyd Zimmerman is a senior trial attorney in the Minneapolis office of the EEOC. This column does not reflect any official policy or position of the EEOC.

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