Employment Discrimination based on Religion - Research Paper Example

? Employment Discrimination Based on Religion Introduction In present days, growing diverse workforce has created complexities or problems between employees and organizations. Nowadays, workers increasingly demonstrate pictures of their religious idols or converse about their respective religions to the co-workers. Furthermore, in a workplace, several employees are often viewed to request for not to work on certain days due to religious holidays and also seek for a break for prayer. Hypothetically, diverse religious based activities might raise several arguments concerning the protection of rights of the employees in workplace. These activities can be regarded as major subjects of concern revealing that every citizen possesses the right of expressing their individual religious beliefs. Furthermore, the activities can also be duly considered as a debatable issue for organizations towards accommodating the right of individuals without compromising organizational objectives. The organizations must possess the responsibility to maintain proper balance with respect to employment rights, treatment of each employees and profitability (Evans, 2007). With this concern, this paper intends to analyze the issue concerning employment discrimination particularly based upon religion and providing effective solutions to address and mitigate this critical issue. Identification of the Problem of Religious Discrimination in Employment In general, discrimination denotes partial or detrimental treatment according to personal characteristic. There lays a greater need to understand the aspects of religion and belief for the purpose of identifying the problem associated with employment discrimination based on the aspect of religion. Precisely, religion is described as a belief and worship of a personal preference of god or an acknowledged system of conviction. On the other hand, the word belief is used for a system of moral belief which directs one’s life. Thus, based on these aspects, religious discrimination is often characterized by preconception, unfair conduct and harassment or any other form of violence based on individual religion or belief. Religious discrimination denotes a disadvantageous consideration or distinction of individuals according to religious affiliation, individual belief, faith oriented appearance or expected religious relationship. Unfair treatment and hostility based personal beliefs are quite common in organizations and they are often endangered by prejudgment, particularly towards certain religious sections (Evans, 2007). According to the observation made by European Network against Racism (2007), individuals are frequently subjected to discrimination on numerous bases. For instance, in the year 2007, the survey of Eurobarometer Report on Discrimination stated that about 44% of Europeans felt discrimination based on religion. The ‘third country nationals’ particularly the undocumented migrants, the Jewish and Muslim communities are especially susceptible towards religious discrimination. For these communities, religious individuality is usually observed as closely associated with racial identity (European Network against Racism, 2007). Religious discrimination in employment occurs when an organization treat employees less positively based on religion or certain belief. For instance, an organization can discharge an employee who belongs to Muslim religion. According to the report of The US Census Bureau, the percentage of the US population, comprising Asian origin has augmented extensively during the period 1990 to 2000. Immigration also augmented the diversity among black Americans as new immigrants appeared from Caribbean and Africa. The American organizations have also observed a corresponding increase in workforce diversity. In the year 1999, the number of immigrant employees in the US was about 15.7 million, representing 12% of the workforce. Moreover, during the period 1990 to 1998, about 12.7 million new employments were created in the US and among them about 5.1 million i.e. 38% were occupied by immigrants. By the year 2000, Hispanics, Asians and American-Indians were accounted for about 15.2% of workforce employed by private organizations in the US with above 100 employees. According to the observation of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), about 2340 cases of religious discrimination have been charged by different victims in the year 2005 in the US (Murray & Bernard, 2005). Discussion and Evaluation of Solutions Discussion of Religious Discrimination The aspect of religious discrimination has appeared as key concern for organizations with the augmentation in workforce diversity. For instance, the report of American Civil Liberties Union (2007) stated that irrespective of legal protection, American Muslim women are prohibited from wearing head coverings in several circumstances. Besides, they have been harassed, dismissed from employment and deprived of accessing certain facilities because of their religion. The report also states that civil right complaints filed within Muslim advocacy has also increased from 366 in the year 2000 to about 2467 in the year 2006 i.e. a growth of 674%. There were approximately 154 cases relating to religious discrimination to the Muslim females in the US workplace in the year 2006 (American Civil Liberties Union, 2007). Although prohibition against discrimination according to religion is fundamental principle in several nations, the enforcement has become a legal challenge. As immigration is changing the demographics of several nations, it is also creating increasing pressures between religious freedom and secularism and also between religious identification and indication of nationality. In this modern day context, multiculturalism as religious tolerance represented a challenge to the thoughts of personal liberty demarcated in a nation. Religious issues are quite broad and complex in nature and also become a subject for regular decisions by the organizations (Evans, 2007). Solutions to the Problems of Employment Discrimination Based on Religion In the US, the enactment of Title VII can be viewed as a key solution towards restrict the malicious impact of employment discrimination based upon religion. It can be regarded as the most frequently involved defensive instrument especially in employment discrimination proceedings (Catania, 1983). In the US, freedom of religion has been assured by the first amendment of the US Constitution. The amendment prohibits religious discrimination by seeking greater help from the government. Title VII belonging to Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids the aspect of discrimination in employment practices with respect to religion. Particularly, an organization should not discriminate an employee with respect to recruitment, compensation and other freedoms of employment. Title VII explains that the term religion comprise every aspect of religious observance along with practices without excessive hardship on the conduct of business. In short, it is illegal for an organization to make irrational accommodation for the potential employees. Title VII applies to organizations with minimum fifteen employees, employment agencies and to the unions as well. In relation to Title VII, the following aspects are prohibited. Treating candidates or employees contrarily according to their religious principles or practices concerning certain aspects such as hiring, duty, remuneration, discipline, promotion and advantages Harassing employees owing to religious principles or practices and Retaliating against a candidate or an employee who has faced discrimination, protested about discrimination or involved as spectator in an examination or proceeding about discrimination (Rapport & Weaver, 2006) The enactment of Title VII comprises prohibition of harassment or other employment action on the basis of following aspects. Affiliation: The law i.e. Title VII prohibit organizations to discriminate individuals due to affiliation with a particular religious group. For instance, harassing any person, because he/she belong to Arabian religion or practice Islam. Cultural Clothing: Title VII prohibits harassment and discrimination of employees because of certain physical, cultural and philological nature such as ascent or outfit which is related with a specific religion, society or country of origin. For instance, it is illegal to harass a woman wearing ‘hijab’ or not employing an individual because of his/her ascent is believed to be from Arab origin. Perception: Title VII also prohibits harassment and discrimination due to the perception or belief that an individual is a member of a specific religion. For instance, not employing a Hispanic individual due to the perception that the person belong to Iraq or any minority section. Relationship: Title VII inhibits harassment or discrimination due to relationship of a person to a specific religion or background. For instance, discriminating an employee whose companion belongs to Pakistan or rejecting the promotion of an employee as he/she visits Mosque (Murray & Bernard, 2005). However, exceptions in certain aspects can also be observed within various religious places that usually provide more inclination to the engagement of the members in a specific religion (Ius Laboris, 2010). Effectiveness of the Solutions The movement of securing discrimination in the workplace has accomplished considerable successes. However, several weaknesses of discrimination laws that make employees more vulnerable toward religious discernment can be witnessed. Presently, the enforcement of religious discrimination laws in the workplace possesses two significant problems. The first problem is that the law disproportionately favors organizations over employees. Usually, every federal circuit in the US employs three-prong tests in order to assess the entitlement of an employee to religious accommodation. First, an employee must hold a genuine religious faith. Second, an employee must place his/her employer on notification creating conflict between religious compliance and job responsibilities. Third, an employee should demonstrate that hardship will appear on the absence of religious requirements. If the employees pass this test, an organization is required to provide reasonable religious accommodation unless, the organization can show that an unjustified hardship will result from providing such accommodation (Friedman, 2010). The second problem is that the discrimination laws are more favorable to white collar professionals in comparison with blue collar or hourly employees. Thus, certain groups of employees are susceptible towards the risk of religion discrimination. The problem between work and religion often arrive in scheduling different activities. For instance, an employee can request time off on a specific day in order to fulfill his or her religious requirements which can create conflict in hourly jobs. In certain industries, work scheduling is less uniform in nature and thus employees are required to work beyond traditional working system (Friedman, 2010). Conclusion & Recommendations Several difficulties can arise with the introduction of protective measures against religious discrimination. The key challenge for reducing employment discrimination can be preserving the freedom of religion for a specific person without compromising the rights of others. Thus, determining the level of equilibrium is difficult in case of religious discrimination (Gregory, 2011). Several strategies can be made in order to avoid the drawbacks of discrimination law. The first step is to incorporate a legal jurisdiction. This particular step would be sensible for courts to capitalize the loss that an organization is required to bear by the efforts of fulfilling religious requirements. In addition, organizations must be forced to bear certain amount of loss for accommodating religious requirements and also for avoiding religious discrimination (Gregory, 2011). The second and the imperative step is to encourage a political change. A political deployment is needed in the workforce, particularly for those people who bear unequal burden of religious discrimination. There must be proper changes in legislation, necessary to provide meaningful religious protection for every person. References American Civil Liberties Union. (2007). Discrimination against Muslim women. Retrieved from https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/womensrights/discriminationagainstmuslimwomen.pdf Catania, A. (1983). State employment discrimination remedies and pendent jurisdiction under title VII: access to federal courts. The American University Law Review 32, pp. 777-838. Evans, J. A. (2007). Religious accommodation in the workplace: can we strike a balance? Retrieved from http://www.uri.edu/research/lrc/research/papers/Evans_Religious_Accommodation.pdf European Network Against Racism. (2007). Religious discrimination and legal protection in the European Union. Retrieved from http://cms.horus.be/files/99935/MediaArchive/pdf/fs34_religiousdiscrimination_oct2007_en.pdf Friedman, R. J. (2010). Religious discrimination in the workplace: the persistent polarized struggle. Transactions: The Tennessee Journal of Business Law 11, pp. 144-164. Gregory, R. F. (2011). Encountering religion in the workplace: the legal rights and responsibilities of workers and employers. United States: Cornell University Press. Ius Laboris. (2010). Religious discrimination in the workplace. Retrieved from http://www.iuslaboris.com/files/documents/Public%20Files/Publications/2010_Publications/religious-discrimination-in-the-workplace.pdf Murray, G. V., & Bernard, D. J. (2005). Employment discrimination based on religion, ethnicity, or country of origin. Retrieved from http://www.vmclaw.com/articles/7_Ethnic_and_Religious_Discrimination_III.pdf Rapport, A., & Weaver, O. (2006). Religious discrimination claims: current trends and practical advice. ALI-ABA Business Law Course Materials Journal, pp. 31-34. Read More