The Act Of Treating Or Considering Or Making A Difference

In “Working it Out” by Diana Eck, she writes about religious oppression in the workplace. The examples she gives on the many ways people have been fired, or the ways in which people's faiths have been compromised, reiterates that the amendment that states freedom of religion in the United States, is

Racial discrimination is defined by Law.com “as unequal treatment of persons, for a reason which has nothing to do with legal rights or ability.” Federal and state laws prohibit discrimination in many facets of society. However, racial profiling by law enforcement is commonly defined as a practice that targets people for suspicion of crime based

Federal (Title VII) and State legislation prohibit intentional discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin and prohibit both “disparate treatment” and “disparate impact” discrimination.

The United States is one of the most culturally and religiously diverse countries in the world. The founding fathers of the United States wanted to ensure that its people would have the ability to practice their religion with no threat of persecution. In order to accomplish the goal of religious freedom and continue to ensure that all people of any religion would be free to practice their religion, the United States passed Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits an employer from discriminating based on the religious views of its employees. As the citizens of the United States spend a large amount of time in their places of employment, religious practices that these employees feel are necessary for the true observance of their religion must be accommodated by the employers. This law contends that in cases where the accommodation of religious practices of its employees does not create undue hardships, an employer must make reasonable accommodations for employees to practices the beliefs of their religion. As the demographics of the United States continues to change with more religiously diverse people immigrating to the country, employers are coming under more pressure to ensure they are taking all possible precautions to accommodate the religious practices of its employees. These precautions are important as the once an employee has established a bona fide complaint of religious discrimination, the burden of proof then falls on the employer to prove they

time off from work to practice their faith and celebrate religious holidays. Employers may face

Freedom of religion has been a right guaranteed to individuals in society. However, it is ultimately just an idea put in place that is disregarded as something insignificant. The workplaces of many people choose to deny employees the right to express their religion freely, for fear it may leave a bad image for the company. It is apparent that freedom of religion is not a strong right as many people may have originally thought it was. The limits of this right have been tested for decades and continue to be an issue for people today. Freedom of religion may go on to exist as a right in society, but when investigating deeper into this privilege, it is evident that it is merely an idea taken for granted.

Discrimination is a prejudicial treatment towards different categories of people or things, or in simpler terms,

This portion of our textbook basically is telling us that Title VII prohibited employers from treating an employee favorable or unfavorable due to religious practices. The textbook tells us, rather than, being treated differently, employers must make reasonable accommodations for these employees. “a reasonable accommodation is one that the employer can implement to enable the qualified person to perform essential job functions without causing undue hardship to the employer” (Bell, 2013, pg. 438).

According to the Race Relations (NI) Order 1997, discrimination is defined as “the unfair treatment of a person based on prejudice and intolerance. It is attitudes, values and prejudices translated into behaviour”. This is basically defined as there is unfair/unequal treatment of individuals or groups throughout the setting. Prejudice is an opinion or judgement formed without considering the relevant facts or arguments. It is an attitude that is rigidly and irrationally maintained even in the face of strong contradictory evidence or in the persistent absence of supportive evidence. Stereotyping is also involved in discriminating against people. Stereotyping is what happens when we simplify out prejudgements about a certain groups of people and we subsequently see all member of that group as having certain negative traits. According to Fitzduff, 1988, “prejudices and stereotyping are mainly concerned with feelings and attitudes. Feelings are nurtured through our childhood, community and society and are often by the time we reach adulthood”.

Issue: Is an employer in violation of Title VII if they refuse to hire an applicant or discharge an employee based on a religious observance. Even when the applicant or employee fails to provide the employer, through explicit notification, of the applicant’s or employee’s need for a religious accommodation?

When any discussion of religion in the workplace and the ethical issues that surround it, one must began by discussing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This Act prohibited discrimination by private and public employers on the grounds of race, color, sex, religion and national origin. Title VII states that an employer must provide reasonable accommodation of an employee 's religious beliefs and practices. Under Title VII, an employer cannot refuse to reasonably accommodate an employee 's religious observances, unless accommodation would constitute an "undue hardship" for the business. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) states directly,

Cultural differences in the workplace can sometimes become a challenge in the work environment. In order to facilitate these differences, there must be some form of cultural awareness. Cultural awareness can help employees face the challenge of responding to individuals with different religions in the workplace, expose religious practices, and eliminate stereotyping in the workplace. Awareness of religions, and the beliefs associated with different religions, can be accomplished in many ways, such as training courses, workshops or company handouts (Thomas Kochan, 2003, p. 4). Companies must embrace multiculturalism and diversity.

What is discrimination? Discrimination is treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit (dictionary.com,2010). In America, there has been many cases of discrimination from both the past and present. Statistics shows that 49% of African American and 11% of Hispanic feel a great deal of discrimination.(Episcopal News Service,2013) Discrimination and racism has some great similarities when it comes to the way people were treated and still being treated in today’s time. So, racism will be mentioned frequently. Therefore, I will discuss the difference between

Religion in the workplace can bring up some of the most difficult issues employers have to face. Resolving these issues requires understanding the law and balancing the business's needs with an employee's desire to practice his or her religion. One of the most contentious conflicts is between an employee's desire to take time off and the potential reduction in productivity and profitability. In ruling on Title VII religion cases, the courts have held that employers aren't required to accommodate employees' religious activities when it involves increased financial costs, transferring supervisory personnel or employees from other departments resulting in inefficiency, or discriminating against other employees or violating seniority systems. Accommodations that don't constitute undue hardship to the employer include voluntary substitutions or employee "swaps," flexible work schedules, floating or optional holidays, staggered work hours, and allowing employees to make up lost time. Transfers and job changes also are options if they don't cause reduced efficiency or

Today there are over 900 religious employee resource groups, according to the International Coalition of Workplace Ministries (Cañas & Sondak, 2010). These affinity groups can help encourage religious understanding by offering panel discussions that educate employees on their beliefs. By allowing open discussion, answering religious questions and creating an open, welcoming religious environment in the workplace employees can better relate to one another through shared religious principles (Cañas & Sondak, 2010). When looking at the business case for diversity, not asking employees to hide their faith at work allows for greater productivity, and time and energy focused on business results (Cañas