Written by Don Byrd
Following the Combating Religious Discrimination Today briefing at the White House, the EEOC has released a new fact sheet targeting young workers to emphasize rights related to religious discrimination in the workplace. The event brought together the Department of Justice, the EEOC, and other agencies to discuss strategies to prevent religious discrimination.
The new one-page fact sheet reminds young workers that, among other things, the law protects both traditional and non-traditional religions as well as those who do not have religious beliefs. And then there is this:
Your boss can’t require you to attend prayer meetings, or prohibit you from praying during breaks. Your boss must excuse you from participation in an activity that is not religious, but conflicts with your religious beliefs, if it would pose little or no burden on the business.
That’s right. Not only should your boss not prevent you from engaging in religious exercise that does not interfere with business, the law also protects you from being compelled to participate in religious activities. The sheet also describes the process for filing a religious discrimination complaint and provides some helpful examples. Check it out.
The EEOC also announced plans to gather data on religious discrimination differently, to “allow EEOC to collect more precise data about the religion of the individual alleging discrimination…”
For more, see the BJC’s Religious Liberty For ALL page. You can also see a few photos from the “Combating Religious Discrimination Today” event on the BJC’s Facebook page.
