Religion in the workplace Essay

Religion is protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by allowing people who work for an employer to be able to ask or take time off in order to observe a religious holiday or attend services. It also forbids employers to discharge, discriminate, limit or segregate any employee based off of their religious preferences. According to what is stated in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 employees are allowed to take that time off of work for religious reasons as long as the employer does not experience any kind of hardship due to the absence of the employee. If a business does not comply with what the law states they can receive up to $1,000.00 fine, one year in jail or possibly both. Some examples of religious accommodations qualified employers must take are: 1. Providing tuition reimbursement even if it is a specific religion course. 2. Allowing employees not to participate in training sessions due to their religion. 3. Employees are allowed to engage in any religious expression. 4. Allowing flexible scheduling around someone’s religious preferences. 5. Providing time and or place to pray. It is important for employers to understand how religion is protected by Title VII because if they fail to comply they can receive hefty fines and possibly jail time. An employer can also be sued by someone if they fail to allow them to express their religious preferences. As for employees it is definitely necessary for them to know about Title VI when it comes to religion. Knowing this information will allow an individual to express their religious rights inside the workplace and not feel threatened because they might believe differently than others. COMING TO AMERICA The group that I choose to talk about is Muslims. This group faces religious discrimination in this country today and has seen an increase of discrimination after September 11th. People assume that because some radical terrorists created 9/11 that all people from that religion is against everyone in the United States. It is sad to hear this because it has been shown that most Muslims do not agree with the radical terrorists. There is even a word that describes the mass hysteria of people who are prejudicial towards Muslims called Islamaphobia. Several articles that I have read stated that people are extremely judgmental towards this group as well as hostile towards any Muslim people they come across. It seems that workplace discrimination towards this group is on the rise as well with several lawsuits pending towards different companies. Most of the lawsuits have to do with the ethnic attire and praying that Muslims do. Do I believe that they can overcome this type of discrimination? No I think they have a long hard road to go. Unfortunately there are a lot of uneducated people in the US and people tend to blame a whole group not just the individual in a terrorist situation. What needs to happen is more education on that religion and harsher judgments towards people who do hate crimes towards a Muslim.