Sometimes religious discrimination is tied to simple hate or hostility against people of a particular religion and involves employers simply treating employees differently because of their religion.
Other times, religious discrimination occurs when supervisors and employers have a problem with employees whose religious beliefs are visibly obvious.
For example, some employers may take issue with Orthodox Jewish men wearing yarmulkes, Sikh men wearing turbans and beards or Muslim women wearing burkas.
Yet other times, religious discrimination involves employers’ failure or refusal to accommodate employees’ religious beliefs.
Regardless of how it occurs, it is illegal for employers to treat employees differently because of their religion. That means that it is unlawful religious discrimination to treat people differently either because they are of a particular religion or because of how they dress, groom themselves, or the way that that they practice their religion. It is also unlawful religious discrimination if employers refuse to accommodate employees’ religious beliefs (unless doing so would impose an undue hardship).
Lastly, it is also unlawful religious discrimination for employers to treat employees differently because of customer or client preferences to do business with people of a certain religion (or race, gender or any other legally protected characteristic).
Sometimes religious discrimination is motivated by employer/supervisor irritation at an employee’s religious beliefs or practices, such as a Jewish employee asking to leave before sundown, a Muslim employee asking for breaks to pray six times a day, or a Catholic health care employee refusing to be involved in terminating pregnancies.
All this being said, there are still blatant cases of supervisors or employers discriminating against an employee simply because that employee practices a particular religion.
If you are being or have been discriminated against because of your religious beliefs, call the New Jersey religion discrimination attorneys at Lenzo & Reis, LLC, in Morristown at (973) 845-9922. If you prefer, you may reach us online. Our religious discrimination attorneys handle discrimination matters throughout New Jersey.