Religious Discrimination FAQs in the Workplace: New York Facts and Frequently Asked Questions

Religious discrimination in the workplace can take many forms, including discrimination based on religious beliefs or practices, denial of a reasonable religious accommodation, religious harassment, and retaliation. Employees in New York may be protected under federal law, the New York State Human Rights Law, and, for employees working in New York City, the New York City Human Rights Law.

The following frequently asked questions address common concerns about religious discrimination, religious accommodations, workplace harassment, and retaliation. Understanding your rights can help you recognize potentially unlawful conduct and determine when to seek legal advice.

What Is Religious Discrimination?

Religious discrimination occurs when an employer treats an employee or job applicant unfavorably because of religion, religious beliefs, or religious practices. Discrimination may affect hiring, termination, promotions, compensation, scheduling, discipline, job assignments, benefits, or other terms and conditions of employment.

Federal law protects individuals with sincerely held religious beliefs and practices, including beliefs that may be unfamiliar to an employer or are not associated with a traditional organized religion. Protection also extends to individuals who have no religious beliefs.

Whether particular conduct violates the law depends on the circumstances and the applicable legal requirements.

What Religions Are Protected by Employment Discrimination Laws?

Employment discrimination laws protect individuals from discrimination because of religion, including people who practice Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and other religions.

Protection is not limited to members of large or traditionally organized religions. Depending on the circumstances, it can also extend to sincerely held religious beliefs and practices that are uncommon or not associated with a formal religious organization. Employees may also be protected from discrimination because they do not hold religious beliefs.

An employer generally cannot make an employment decision based on religious stereotypes, assumptions, or hostility toward an employee’s faith. Whether a particular belief or practice qualifies for protection depends on the facts and applicable law.

What Is a Religious Accommodation?

A religious accommodation is a reasonable adjustment to a workplace rule, schedule, policy, or practice that allows an employee to observe or practice their religion.

Examples of potential religious accommodations include:

• Time off for religious holidays or holy days.
• Schedule changes for Sabbath observance.
• Voluntary shift substitutions or schedule adjustments.
• Reasonable opportunities for religious prayer.
• Permission to wear religious clothing or head coverings.
• Exceptions to grooming requirements involving religious facial hair or hairstyles.
• Other reasonable changes addressing conflicts between religious practices and workplace requirements.

An employee should make the employer aware of the religious nature of the conflict and the need for an accommodation. Under federal law, an employee does not necessarily need to use specific legal terminology or submit a formal written request for an employer to have notice of the need for an accommodation.

An employer generally does not have to provide the employee’s preferred accommodation if another reasonable accommodation adequately resolves the religious conflict and satisfies the employer’s legal obligations.

Can My Employer Deny Time Off for a Religious Holiday?

Not necessarily. An employee may be entitled to a reasonable accommodation when a work schedule conflicts with a sincerely held religious observance.

Federal and New York laws address conflicts between workplace requirements and religious practices, including Sabbath and holy-day observance. Depending on the circumstances, an employer may need to consider schedule changes, shift swaps, leave, or another reasonable accommodation.

An employer’s staffing needs and operational circumstances may be relevant to the analysis, but a request cannot automatically be rejected merely because it involves a religious holiday or requires a scheduling adjustment.

Whether denying a particular request violates the law depends on the circumstances, the available alternatives, and the applicable undue-hardship standard.

Can My Employer Require Me to Work on the Sabbath?

An employer should not automatically treat a sincerely held religious Sabbath observance as merely a personal scheduling preference.

Depending on the circumstances, an employer may be required to reasonably accommodate an employee whose Sabbath observance conflicts with a work schedule. Potential accommodations may include a shift swap, schedule adjustment, or another arrangement that resolves the conflict.

If an employer disciplines an employee, denies an accommodation, or takes other adverse action because of Sabbath observance, the employee may wish to seek legal advice about the circumstances and applicable protections.

Can My Employer Prohibit Religious Clothing or a Head Covering?

A workplace dress code does not automatically allow an employer to prohibit religious clothing or head coverings.

Depending on the circumstances, religious accommodations may include permission to wear a hijab, yarmulke or kippah, turban, religious jewelry, or other religious attire. Religious grooming practices involving facial hair, hairstyles, or hair length may also receive legal protection.

Federal and New York laws may require an employer to make an exception to a dress or grooming policy when necessary to accommodate a sincerely held religious practice, unless the applicable undue-hardship standard is met.

An employer’s general appearance policy does not, by itself, establish that denying a religious accommodation is lawful.

Can I Pray at Work?

Potentially. Employees may request a reasonable accommodation that allows them to engage in religious prayer at work.

Depending on the circumstances, an accommodation could involve a reasonable break schedule, use of an appropriate workplace area, or another adjustment that permits religious observance.

Employers may consider legitimate workplace requirements, including safety, scheduling, and the impact on business operations. However, an employer cannot automatically reject a religious accommodation simply because the requested practice involves religious expression.

Whether a particular accommodation must be provided depends on the circumstances and applicable law.

What Is Undue Hardship in a Religious Accommodation Case?

An employer is not required to provide every requested religious accommodation. Federal law recognizes an undue-hardship limitation.

In Groff v. DeJoy, the United States Supreme Court clarified the federal standard under Title VII. An employer must show that the burden of providing the accommodation would be substantial in the overall context of its business, taking into account the particular accommodation and its practical impact in light of the nature, size, and operating costs of the business.

An employer cannot necessarily establish undue hardship merely by claiming that an accommodation is inconvenient or requires an ordinary adjustment to workplace practices.

New York State and New York City law also have applicable accommodation requirements and undue-hardship standards. The precise analysis may differ depending on which law applies.

Whether an employer can lawfully deny an accommodation depends on the particular circumstances, the available alternatives, and the governing legal standard.

Can Customer Preferences Justify Religious Discrimination?

Generally, an employer cannot justify discriminatory treatment simply because customers or clients object to an employee’s religion, religious clothing, or religious appearance.

For example, an employer may violate federal law by removing an employee from customer-facing duties, refusing to hire the employee, or terminating the employee because customers do not want to interact with someone of the employee’s actual or perceived religion.

An employer generally cannot rely on customer prejudice as a substitute for evaluating its legal obligations to accommodate religious practices.

The specific circumstances still matter, particularly when a separate, legitimate workplace requirement is involved. However, customer discomfort or bias toward an employee’s religion does not, by itself, establish a lawful reason to discriminate.

What Is Religious Harassment?

Religious harassment involves unwelcome conduct directed at an employee because of religion. Examples may include religious slurs, repeated insults, offensive jokes, mocking religious practices, or derogatory comments concerning an employee’s faith.

Not every offensive comment or isolated workplace incident constitutes unlawful harassment. Under federal law, harassment may be unlawful when it is sufficiently severe or pervasive to create a hostile work environment or when it results in a tangible employment action.

New York State and New York City laws may provide additional protections, and their legal standards are not necessarily identical to the federal standard.

Harassment may involve a supervisor, manager, coworker, or, in certain circumstances, a customer or client. An employer’s potential responsibility depends on the circumstances, including who engaged in the conduct and what the employer knew or should have known.

What Is Religious Discrimination Retaliation?

Religious discrimination retaliation occurs when an employer takes adverse action against an employee because the employee engaged in legally protected activity.

Depending on the applicable law, protected activity may include:

• Complaining about religious discrimination.
• Requesting a protected religious accommodation.
• Opposing conduct reasonably believed to be discriminatory.
• Filing a discrimination complaint.
• Participating in a discrimination investigation or legal proceeding.

Retaliation may involve termination, demotion, discipline, reduced hours, unfavorable assignments, or other adverse employment actions.

Whether conduct constitutes unlawful retaliation depends on the protected activity, the employer’s actions, the connection between them, and the applicable legal requirements.

An employee who believes they have experienced retaliation after raising religious discrimination concerns should preserve relevant communications and consider obtaining legal advice.

How Can Religious Discrimination Be Proven?

Religious discrimination may be established through direct evidence, such as discriminatory statements, or through circumstantial evidence connecting an employment decision to an employee’s religion or religious practice.

Potential evidence includes:

• Emails and text messages.
• Religious accommodation requests and employer responses.
• Workplace policies and employee handbooks.
• Performance evaluations and disciplinary records.
• Work schedules and leave requests.
• Termination documents and other employment records.
• Statements made by supervisors, managers, or coworkers.
• Witness testimony.
• Evidence showing how similarly situated employees were treated.

For a religious accommodation dispute, documentation showing that the employer was informed of the religious conflict and the employee’s request can be particularly important.

For a harassment claim, records of incidents, communications, complaints, and the employer’s response may be relevant. For a retaliation claim, the timing of a complaint or accommodation request and subsequent employment actions may also be important.

The evidence required depends on the type of claim and the facts of the case.

What Should I Do If I Believe I Am Being Discriminated Against?

If you believe you are experiencing religious discrimination in the workplace, consider taking the following steps:

1. Document important incidents. Keep a record of dates, statements, employment decisions, and the individuals involved.
2. Preserve relevant communications. Keep appropriate copies of accommodation requests, employer responses, emails, messages, schedules, and other relevant employment records. Do not access or take confidential or proprietary materials you are not authorized to obtain.
3. Keep records of accommodation requests. If a workplace requirement conflicts with your religious practice, document the request and any response or alternative proposed by the employer.
4. Consider reporting the conduct. Depending on the circumstances, an internal complaint may be appropriate. However, an internal complaint does not necessarily pause or extend an external legal filing deadline.
5. Review employment agreements carefully. Before signing a severance agreement, settlement agreement, resignation document, or release of claims, consider obtaining legal advice about its terms and potential consequences.
6. Seek legal advice promptly. Employment discrimination claims are subject to deadlines that vary according to the applicable law, type of claim, forum, and circumstances. Waiting too long may affect your ability to pursue a claim.

An employment attorney can evaluate the circumstances, identify potentially applicable laws, and discuss available options.

New York Religious Discrimination Lawyer

If you believe you have experienced religious discrimination in the workplace, been denied a religious accommodation, been subjected to religious harassment, or faced retaliation for complaining about discrimination, the Law Office of Joseph F. Kilada can evaluate your circumstances and discuss your potential legal options.

The firm represents employees throughout New York City and Long Island, including Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island, Nassau County, and Suffolk County. With offices in Garden City and Penn Plaza in Manhattan, the firm serves employees throughout the New York metropolitan area.

Contact our office to discuss your potential religious discrimination, religious accommodation, harassment, or retaliation claim.

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This information is provided for general informational purposes and is not legal advice. Employment discrimination laws can change, and the outcome of any particular matter depends on its specific facts and applicable law. Contacting the firm or viewing this website does not, by itself, establish an attorney-client relationship.