Religious-based discrimination is prohibited at your workplace

If you’re a worker in the United States, federal law protects you from religious-based discrimination at your job. As a nation founded by immigrants who fled Europe because of religious prosecution, the founding fathers of the United States felt that people should be free to believe as they wish. Not only are public citizens protected from religious-oriented discrimination, but employees are also protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Title VII offers various protections to American workers. These protections include:

• Freedom from religious-based discrimination during the hiring and firing process.
• Freedom from religious-based discrimination during the assignment of tasks, the classification of employees and decisions about how to compensate workers.
• Freedom from religious-based discrimination during recruitment of employees and the testing of employees.
• Freedom from religious-based discrimination while interacting with and communicating with employees.

Imagine you have a new job: You show up to work and discover that all of the Christian employees benefit from having offices or workspaces in the cleanest part of the building, where there are the nicest toilets, good air conditioning and a beautiful view of the city. Meanwhile, the Muslim and Jewish employees are relegated to the basement, or to the worst part of the building were conditions are dirty, unsafe and uncomfortable. A situation like this could be a clear case of religious-oriented employment discrimination.

You might also discover that at your workplace, Jewish employees tend to get promoted faster and are always invited to parties at the boss’s house. Meanwhile, non-Jewish staff members never get to experience the same opportunities. This could also be a case of unlawful, job-related religious discrimination.

Finally, you may never even know that you’ve been discriminated against because of your religion. You may simply get passed up for a job opportunity during the hiring process because you were wearing a kippah as a part of your Jewish tradition. If this happened to you, it’s important to know why.

California employees who suspect that they are suffering from religious-oriented discrimination at their workplaces may be on the right side of the law. Learn more about religious discrimination and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect your legal employment rights before it’s too late.