…that the Workplace Religious Freedom Act is finally passed? An op-ed in today's Iowa Des Moines Register makes the case that it's overdue.
…claims of religious discrimination in the workplace have more than doubled since 1992. While most employers want only a religiously neutral workplace, many employees experience this as hostility to their beliefs and practices. . . .
The courts have not been helpful either. In trying to determine whether an employer must accommodate an employee's religious practices, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said that an employer need not provide religious accommodation if it created an "undue hardship" on the employer. This seems only fair. The courts have ruled, however, that almost any hardship is "undue" if the employer says it is. As a result, protections of religious freedom in the workplace have been seriously eroded at the same time that religious diversity is on the rise.
