Religious Discrimination

Miami Emplyment Lawyers Protecting Your Workplace

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals in hiring for firing decisions and other terms of employment because of their religion. Title VII covers employers with 15 or more employees.

This means:

• Employers may not treat employees or applicants more or less favorably because of their religious beliefs or practices
• Employers may not refuse to hire individuals of a certain religion
• Employers may not impose stricter promotion requirements for persons of a certain religion
• Employers may not impose more or different work requirements on an employee because of that employee's religious beliefs or practices

Your Religious Beliefs Are Protected

Employees cannot be forced to participate or not participate in a religious activity as a condition of employment. Employers must reasonably accommodate employees' held religious practices unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on the employer. A reasonable religious accommodation is any adjustment to the work environment that will allow the employee to practice his religion.

An employer can show undue hardship if accommodating an employee's religious practices requires more than ordinary administrative costs, diminishes efficiency in other jobs, infringes on other employees' job rights or benefits, impairs workplace safety, causes co-workers to carry the accommodated employee's share of potentially hazardous or burdensome work, or if the proposed accommodation conflicts with another law or regulation.

An employer cannot retaliate against an individual for opposing employment practices that discriminate based on religious belief (filing a discrimination charge, testifying, or participating in any way in a proceeding under Title VII ). (Participation means taking part in an employment discrimination proceeding. Participation is protected activity even if the proceeding involved claims that ultimately were found to be invalid).

If you have any questions about religious discrimination, call Remer, Georges-Pierre & Hoogerwoerd, PLLC for a consultation at 305.416.5000 or fill out our online request form.