Religious Discrimination Essay Example for Free

Religious Discrimination EssayReligious discrimination under title VII as defined by the U. S. Equal conflict Opportunity Commission (EEOC) involves treating a person unfavorably because of his or her spectral precepts. The law protects non only people who be eagle-eyed to traditional, organized religious beliefs but likewise others who meet sincerely held sacred, ethical or lesson beliefs. The law forbids discrimination on the basis of religion in either and all aspects of employment. This includes hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, and benefits.Title VII withal prohibits chokeplace segregation based on religion, such as assigning an employee to a non- node contact position because of actual or presumed customer preference. Title VII also addresses reasonable accommodation in relation to religion. The law requires that the employer must reasonably accommodate an employees religious beliefs or practices, unless doing so would cause m ore than a minimal burden on the employers business.For example, if an employee needs to be off work on Sunday mornings to regularly attend church service services it would be the responsibility of the employer to reasonably attempt to accommodate this need. An accommodation for this could include compensable a nonher employee to cover the Sunday morning shift, in time if it requires paying overtime. Or the employer could hire an additional employee to be able to cover the shift. Since Title 7 of the United States Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964 there present been some(prenominal) judicial decisions that have molded the musical mode this law in interpreted and applied.The first such court pillowcase that I came across was the case of rip off V. United States which brought into question what types of beliefs can be used to obtain conscientious objector status when being selected to go to war. In this case the prosecutor was convicted of refusing to contain induction into the armed forces he did take on conscientious objector status but did non base this decision off religion. He did not claim to believe in a deity that would morally keep him from fighting in a war, he instead asserted his own personal moral foe to any conflict in which people are being killed.He alleged that the sincerity of his belief should qualify him for exemption from military debt instrument under the Universal Military Training and Service Act. The Act allowed only those people whose opposition to the war was based on religious beliefs to be say conscientious objectors. However in a 5-3 decision the court allowed Welsh to be declared a conscientious objector even though his opposition was not based on religious convictions. The implication this case has on Human imagings Management is that HR personnel must be aware of the extensive scope of beliefs that will be protect under Title 7.Whereas before this case only majorly defined religions such as Judaism and Catholic ism would be protected you now see religions such as scientology seeking protection under the law. Another relevant case would be Seshadri v. Kasraian which established that an employee bringing a religious discrimination claim does not need to belong to an established church. Another case that has shaped this law and impacted human resource management was Campos v. metropolis of Blue Springs.In April 1996 Campos was hired as a crisis counselor for the Blue Springs Police Departments Youth Outreach Program (YOU). At the time she did not have the advanced degree as required by the written job description, but her supervisor told her that she would have until February 1997 to obtain her degree and guarantee her position. She was also guaranteed via verbal contract that she would be paid an extra $10,000 per year for support group work, she would be a team leader within three months, and she would be an assistant director within six months of starting her full-time employment.She began working in October 1996, enjoying her job until she disclosed to her supervisor that she observes tenets of Native American Spirituality, not Christianity. Campos claimed that today her supervisors behavior towards her changed she was unfriendly and critical, excluded her from employee meetings, and told her that she may not have been a good fit for the job. After failing to show up to work due to attending a mandatory meeting to obtain her dissertation, which was required by her employer, Campos received so much scrutiny from her supervisor that she resigned.After her resignation, Campos filed example against the City, alleging that she suffered from employment discrimination based upon her religion, sex, and national origin. The charges of sex and national origin discrimination were eliminated, and the case was submitted to the control panel on the theory that Campos was constructively discharged because of her religion. On April 13, 2001, the jury awarded Campos $79,200 for b ack pay and compensatory damages. The district court denied the Citys Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law, or in the Alternative, for a New Trial, and awarded Camposs attorneys 90,556. 20 in fees and $11,825. 41 in expenses.This case has implications on Human Resources Management today because it establishes that employment decisions cannot be made based on whether or not an employee or potential employee agrees or disagrees with the employers religious views. One relevant business that comes to mind is Chik Fil A and their openly Christian beliefs. Even though they include Christian values in the core content of their mission statement and business plan they know that they cannot make any employment decisions based on religious affiliation.In Eatman V.United Parcel Service in 2002 the companys policy of requiring its drivers that had unconventional hairstyles to clothing hats was called into question. The plaintiff was required by the company to wear a hat while on the clock bec ause his hairstyle of choice was dreadlocks, a hairstyle where sections of hair are hand-rolled together in tight, interwoven spirals.After putting a lot of thought into the decision, Eatman, who is black, began wearing locks in February 1995 as an outward expression of an internal commitment to his Protestant faith as well as his Nubian belief system. At this same time he also became enlightened about locked hair and its connection to African identity and heritage. The position that his supervisor at UPS took on his hair was that the company uses common sense to determine which hairstyles are not businesslike he finds ponytails, Mohawks, green hair, carved shapes, and locked hairshort or longunacceptable. And there were currently 19 other drivers at this particular UPS that were required to wear hats to cover their unconventional hairstyles, including others that had dreadlocks.Even though Eatman claimed that the policy was discriminatory the jury did not rule in his favor. It was ruled that Eatmans hairstyle was dictated by a personal choice. Nowhere in his religious texts did it dictate in any way that followers of the faith must wear their hair uncovered in dreadlocks. The implications of this case are actually pro employer and pro Human Resource Manager. It shows that not every claim that an employee makes based off of religious need has to be immediately catered to.There are cases where the request can be idle and off topic of religion, in which case the employer does not need to go out of their way to make accommodations. Another very interesting court case that I came across was EEOC v. Union Independiete De La Autoridad De Acueductos y Alcantarillados De Puerto Rico. I found this case to be very interesting because it stipulates that employees cannot pick and choose which parts of their religion they wish to follow and which ones they do not. In this case the issue was whether or not a Seventh day Adventists objection to union social station was th e product of a sincerely held belief.Although the religious foundation of the Seventh day Adventist faiths opposition to union social status has long been recognized, there was express that this employee often acted in a manner inconsistent with his professed religious beliefs. He was divorced, took an oath before a notary upon becoming a public employee, worked quintuple days a week (instead of the six days required by his faith), and there was some evidence that the alleged conflict between his beliefs and union membership was a moving target.This case seemed important because is forces the employee to prove that religion is vital part of their life. It keeps them from claiming that they are Christian for the sole purpose of being off on Christmas, or from claiming that they are Catholic only to be off on Easter. It not only keeps people from faking being religious but it also helps to checker the sanctity of those who actually are as religious as they claim to be. And the fi nal court case that I found addresses sincerely held beliefs that have not always been there but can conceivably come about.In the case of E. E. O. C. v. Ilona of Hungary, Inc. an employee sincerely believed that she should refrain from working on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur even though she had not frequently celebrated Jewish holidays in the past. Her rise in faith was brought on by recent family events such as the qualifying of her mother-in-law and father, the birth of her son, and her husbands rising faith. The court decided that these were significant enough to have caused a change in lifestyle and that she did believably have a real change of faith.After reviewing all of the cases mentioned above, along with numerous others, I have found that the topic of religion isnt nearly as black and white as most would assume. There are many grey areas What constitutes religion, how do you know if someone legitimately believes in their religion, and what aspects of someones lifesty le are pertinent to their claimed religion are just a few examples of where courts have to make a decision that will affect the way this topic is viewed for years to come.With the world become more and more diversified every day the topic of religion and all others under title 7 will continue to be tested and pushed to their limits. It is the job of the Human Resources Management team to be on high alert of potential discrimination cases and have all employees properly trained on these matters to ensure it does not happen at their company.