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CA Workplace Religious Freedom Act

BY Rosanna Sattler
December 27, 2012

Employers often are faced with tricky legal dilemmas when employees ask to display religious symbols and take time off for religious observance. Can an employer reject an applicant who insists on wearing head coverings or religious jewelry with her uniform? Can an employee be forced to work Christmas Eve ' one of the busiest retail days of the year ' if he wants to attend a Catholic mass? Does it matter if the job is security related? The most common religious request by retail employees is time off for a religious holiday, followed by requests to be excused from a dress code. Recent developments in both legislation and case law suggest that employers will have to handle these requests with increased sensitivity, flexibility, and creativity. Employers should only deny a religious accommodation when it would cause a quantifiable undue burden.

Increased Enforcement Efforts by the EEOC

Religious discrimination in the workplace has become an area of greater concern on a national level. Between 1997 and 2011, the number of religious discrimination charges increased from 1,709 to 4,151. After 9/11, religious discrimination became a priority focus of the EEOC, which undertook immediate efforts to address workplace backlash based on actual or perceived religious practices of employees. Today, combatting workplace harassment on the basis of religion (and other protected statuses) is one of the cornerstones of the EEOC's Strategic Enforcement Plan for 2012-2016. The EEOC made news in 2012 when it obtained a favorable settlement of a religious discrimination claim against a company that runs a number of Taco Bell restaurants, on behalf of an employee who was fired because he refused to cut his hair for religious reasons. The EEOC made the news again when it filed a complaint against a Burger King franchisee that fired a cashier when she insisted on wearing a long skirt prescribed by the Pentecost religion.

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