About Employment Discrimination Based on Religious Beliefs

If you are a job applicant or an employee whose life centers on religious beliefs, you must know that you have the right for fair treatment in the workplace. As such, your employer, potential employer, or any of your co-workers must be understanding and respectful of your religious beliefs.

However, if your potential employer doesn’t hire you, your co-worker harassed you, or your employer dismissed you because of religion, then you are automatically a victim of religious discrimination. Now what is this kind of workplace discrimination?

Basically, religious discrimination is an unfair treatment of an individual because of his or her religion. It is also treating a person in a different way because of his or her religious practices, as well as his or her request to accommodate for his or her beliefs and practices. Religious discrimination can also refer to a wrongful treatment during employment because of his or her lack of religious belief or practice.

This kind of workplace discrimination is also associated with the other forms of employment bias, especially those based on a person’s national origin, citizenship/immigration status, or race. Meanwhile, here are some examples that constitute religious discrimination:

• Refusing an applicant a job because he or she is an Adventist or an Orthodox Jew who recognizes the holy Sabbath Day (Saturday).
• Giving an employee a grave sanction (e.g. suspension, termination) just because he or she missed a day of work for observing a religious holiday.
• Asking an employee to attend church regularly in exchange for a job promotion or a higher salary raise.
• Harassing an employee through comments that ridicule his or her strict and strong observance to his or her religious beliefs.
• Mocking an employee’s religious dress while at work, particularly if he or she is wearing a turban or a head scarf.

If you are an employee who has experienced religious discrimination in the workplace, it would benefit you if you retain the services of a Los Angeles discrimination attorney. If your employer in question is proven guilty of discrimination, you may recover remedies including back pay, rehiring, front pay and compensatory and punitive damages.