DQ 8-1

How could Christian perspectives prevent an employee from performing their required duties? As an HR representative, what legal and ethical responsibilities do you have to ensure all employees views and

1.

A Christian perspective could prevent an employee from performing their required duties by making them work mandatory on Sunday when they view this day as a day of rest, or want to attend a church service.  Another example is the Christian business owner of a cake shop who refused to bake a cake for a gay couples wedding.  The business owner used his religion for the reason he didn’t want to bake the cake.  In the end the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the baker (Grupta).  In order to mitigate legal and ethical issues that might arise such as this, a human resource representative needs to make every attempt to take employees views and beliefs into consideration.

 

Grupta, V. (2018, June 5). Gay Wedding Cake Ruling Reaffirms That Businesses Can’t Discriminate. Retrieved from: https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/05/opinions/masterpiece-cakeshop-supreme-court-opinion-gupta/index.html

Instructor comment:What if the HR rep tells the employee that Sunday is a day of business and you knew this when you took the job.  The work hours were clearly posted in the job description and they were communicated to you in the job interview.  What are your thoughts?

2. Individuals around the world come from different religious backgrounds and as an employer it is our duty to hold their beliefs with utmost respect in accordance to the law. In the United States of America, we have the freedom of religion that allows individuals to have faith and practice their religion without limitations. However, there are instances when this right is violated within their workplace. Christians believe they shouldn’t work on Sundays, as it is their obligation to attend mass and practice their religious beliefs on this day. However, depending on where you work this belief may or may not be respected and your employer may ask you to work on Sundays. As an HR representative, it is important that we are knowledgeable and remain respectful and mindful of other’s beliefs and their practices.  

Religious discrimination can take many forms. If you have been denied work or a promotion, harassed at work, or denied an accommodation at work because of your religious beliefs or practices, or because of your lack of certain religious beliefs you may have recourse. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) prohibit many employers from engaging in religious discrimination in the workplace. The law protects not only people who belong to traditional organized religions such as the Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or other faiths, but all people who have sincerely held religious, ethical, or moral beliefs. If you have been rejected for employment, fired, harassed or otherwise harmed in your employment because of your religion, your religious beliefs and practices, and/or your request for accommodation of your religious beliefs and practices, you may have suffered unlawful religious discrimination.

· Hiring / firing / promotion: This type of discrimination entails making employment decisions based upon someone's faith, or lack thereof. This could be refusing to hire an employee because he or she is a Seventh-Day Adventist or Orthodox Jew and observes a Saturday Sabbath; firing an employee after he or she misses work to observe a religious holiday; promoting an employee only if she is willing to attend church regularly; transferring an employee to a position with less public contact because he is a Rastafarian who wears dreadlocks; not giving an employee a raise until he stops discussing religious beliefs with other employees during free time such as breaks or lunch.

· Harassment: Harassing individuals due to their religion can include making fun of employees or telling them they are violating the company's dress code because they wear religious clothing such as yarmulkes, turbans, or hijabs (head scarves); repeatedly mocking a person because of his or her strong, Christian beliefs; ridiculing a Muslim employee for refusing pork at a company picnic; making efforts repeatedly to “save the soul” of a fellow employee who is an atheist.

· Failure to accommodate: Denial of religious accommodation is the most common form of workplace religious discrimination. This type of discrimination can include requiring an employee to work on his Sunday Sabbath, even though other employees are willing to trade shifts with him; forcing an employee to remove her hijab (scarf) to comply with the company's dress code even though other employees wear baseball caps on the job; not allowing employees to display religious icons or other expressions of religious belief in their work spaces, although employees are allowed to display other types of personal items.

Religion-based EEOC discrimination cases have significantly increased in recent years. Between 1997 and 2015, religion-based claims have risen by 41%, and payouts have increased approximately 174%. If any of these things have happened to you on the job, you may have suffered illegal religious discrimination (Workplace Fairness, n.d). 

As stated above, an HR representative must be fully aware of the law in order to avoid miscommunication and discrimination against its employees. It is important to become knowledgeable and know what is allowed and what is not. The law protects both the employer and employees against unlawful rules within the workplace. Therefore, it is essential that employers provide a fair work environment in order to avoid any issues towards their staff. In order to be in accordance to the laws, employers should attend informational seminars and have the appropriate attorneys on hand in the event an issue comes up. 

 

Reference:

(n.d.). Workplace Fairness It’s Everyone’s Job. Your Rights Religious Discrimination. Retrieved from 

https://www.workplacefairness.org/religious-discrimination#1

3.

There are several ways that Christian perspective can prevent an employee from performing her required duties.  A Catholic doctor could be asked to perform an abortion or prescribe birth control medications which are both against her religion. A Mormon employee’s faith may prevent working on Sundays. Interestingly, Arizona is one of six states that allow pharmacies or pharmacists to refuse to fill a prescription based on religious or moral reasons and the law does not require them to refer the patient to another pharmacist or transfer the prescription to another location (Burkitt, 2018). The faithful practice their religion through various actions - styles of dress, trying to recruit others to their faith, praying, fasting, avoiding certain language or behavior, and observing certain religious holidays (“Religion in the Workplace,” 2018). While employers have a duty to accommodate the religious beliefs of their employees, the employer does have some leeway in how it conducts its business.  A job may legally have certain qualifications or requirements that limit participation from a particular religious faith (“Religion in the Workplace,” 2018).  An employer may enforce a written policy that working on Sunday or prescribing birth control is a requirement for working there or that a butcher must be willing to offer pork.  This information must be presented clearly when employment is offered and must be documented in corporate policies (“Religion in the Workplace,” 2018).

 

A human resources representative must understand the laws and policies that apply in order to meet their legal responsibilities. Under the First Amendment, Americans enjoy two freedoms with respect to religion: the right to be free from a government-imposed religion, and a right to practice any religion. Federal and state laws ban religious discrimination in employment (“Religion in the Workplace,” 2018). The primary statute in this area is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII prohibits private employers from discriminating on several bases, including race, color, religion, sex, or national origin (“Religion in the Workplace,” 2018). An employer with a policy of refusing to hire or to promote (or only hiring and promoting) members of a particular religion would commit disparate treatment discrimination. Disparate impact discrimination is when a policy makes no mention of a particular religion, but still functions to discriminate by affecting only certain religious groups (“Religion in the Workplace,” 2018). Hostile work environment discrimination occurs when the employer maintains (or allows) a hostile environment for employees of particular faiths (“Religion in the Workplace,” 2018).

 

A human resource representative is also responsible for ethically managing a diverse religious workplace.  Proactive measures could include focusing efforts in the following:

· Offer holiday swapping or floating holiday policies.

· Provide training and information on religious diversity and inclusivity to create a more inclusive environment.

· Ensure that employees have a space for daily religious practices such as prayer.

· Develop a formal policy on religion that is distinct from a general diversity policy.

(Hastings, 2018)

 

References:

Burkitt, B. (2018, June 27). Was a Peoria Walgreens pharmacist legally justified in denying miscarriage medication? Retrieved September 7, 2018, from https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/peoria/2018/06/24/walgreens-peoria-pharmacist-legally-justified-denying-miscarriage-medication/729189002/

Hastings, R. R. (2018, April 11). HR Seeks Balance in Handling Religion in the Workplace. Retrieved September 7, 2018, from https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-news/pages/handlingreligioninworkplace.aspx

Religion in the Workplace. (2018). Retrieved September 7, 2018, from https://employment.findlaw.com/employment-discrimination/religion-in-the-workplace.html