The upcoming holiday season can be an especially tricky time when it comes to religious discrimination. Many employees are celebrating and observing different religious holidays and some may not be celebrating any holiday at all. It is important for an employer to be sensitive to all of these varying beliefs, not just out of political correctness and tolerance, but to avoid a potential discrimination claim. When it comes to anti-discrimination laws, religion is a protected class. This means that it is against the law for an employer to discriminate in any way against an employee based on religion or religious beliefs.
Discrimination claims comes in all shapes and sizes. An employee may feel discriminated against because he is the only non-Christian in an office decked out in Christmas decorations. Or he may feel discriminated against because he was told to remove the mini nativity scene from his desk. Or maybe he takes offense to being invited to a Christmas party or partake in a Secret Santa gift exchange when he is Jewish.
Outlined below are some measures employers can take to ensure that no employee feels discriminated against on the basis of religion. Following these simple steps can decrease the likelihood of your company being hit with a religious discrimination law suit.
• Avoid religious decorations in the office. If you want to decorate your office in celebration of the season, stick to more “traditional”, non-religious decorations, like winter scenes and snowmen. Avoid overtly religious symbols like crosses and nativity scenes. If you do decide to have some “moderate” religious decorations, like wreaths or Christmas trees, try to include symbols of other religions, like a menorah or dreidel. You may also want to consider having decorations during other non-religious holiday times (such as Valentine’s Day, Independence Day, and Thanksgiving) to lesson the appearance of a religious undertone during the Christmas season. Although there is no federal law that bans private employers from putting up religious decorations in the common areas, you do not want to be seen as “endorsing” a particular religion and risk offending people who do not subscribe to that religion. You also want to be careful about prohibiting employees, who might normally be permitted to display family photos and artwork, from decorating their own personal office spaces with religious decorations, as that could be interpreted as religious discrimination. Any policies about displaying holiday decorations in personal office spaces should be carefully considered before being issued.
• Avoid using the term “Christmas” (or any other religious holiday) with respect to any employer sanctioned event or program. For example, do not call your annual party a Christmas Party, your annual gift exchange a “Secret Santa”, or your annual bonus a Christmas Bonus. Instead, refer to them as a Holiday Party or End of Year Party, a “secret gift exchange” or “Pollyanna”, and a Holiday Bonus or Annual Bonus.
• If your office is closed for Christmas, make sure to also respect the wishes of non-Christian employees to take off to observe their holidays. If your company is open for Christmas, make an effort to accommodate those employees who want to request the day off. While the law does not obligate you to accommodate such requests if it would cause undue hardship to your company, reasonable accommodations should be made to accommodate an employee’s religious beliefs.
• Be supportive of an employee’s unease. For example, if an employee expresses discomfort over any holiday decorations in the office, do not ridicule the employee for her concerns. Instead, do your best to accommodate the employee’s concerns, perhaps by removing Christmas decorations from her work space and/or placing a decoration of her own religion in the office. If the employee sees that you are understanding of her religious beliefs and are making an effort to accommodate her concerns, she will be less likely to feel discriminated against.
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