Employment Discrimination Blog

Shorter University, a Baptist college located in Rome, Georgia, recently mandated that its 200 employees sign a “personal lifestyle pledge”. The pledge declared that they reject adultery, premarital sex, and homosexuality. The pledge also required that employees abstain from using drugs and participate in local churches.

According to some sources, many faculty members have resigned or are planning to resign as a result of the pledge. Some faculty members took issue with the fact that the pledge singled out some sins but not others, while others claimed that the pledge was approved as a result of a very biased survey. Students are also said to be unhappy about the pledge. Supporters of the pledge claim that the goal was to declare what the college was all about.

So are employers allowed to discriminate on the basis of religion? Yes. Although Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers with at least 15 employees from discriminating in employment based on religion, there are exceptions. Under Title VII, religious organizations are permitted to give employment preference to members of their own religion. This exception only applies to institutions whose purpose and character are primarily religious. In order to decide whether an entity is religious, courts consider whether it’s working for a religious purpose, whether its day-to-day operations are religious, whether it’s not-for-profit, and whether it’s affiliated with a church or another religious organization.

Therefore, a private employer that is considered religious can discriminate in its hiring and general employment practices. However, there are limits to what a religious employer can do. For example, a religious employer can’t otherwise discriminate in employment on the basis of race, national origin, sex, etc. by claiming that according to its religious beliefs, their employees are not allowed to associate with people of other races.

In general, religious employers have some wiggle room in what types of employment discrimination they can engage in, although there are limits. The actions taken by Shorter University are most likely legal, although they may end up ultimately having a detrimental effect on the faculty and student populations.

This month, four Muslim men sued IHOP, claiming they were wrongfully terminated from their managerial positions because of their religion, as well as their ethnicity.

In the lawsuit, they claimed that although they got positive performance reviews, all were fired in the course of a year and were replaced by white, non-Muslim managers. They allege that one of those replacements told other managers at a meeting that “Arab men  treat women poorly and with disrespect . . . we’re going to have to let these people go and have new faces coming in”. One of the men at the meeting was fired a few weeks later for an incident that occurred while he was counseling a female employee over a mistake she made.

Late last year, a Georgia representative introduced a bill in the Georgia House of Representatives that would ban job discrimination against state employees because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The bill failed to pass out of the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month, and is dead for the year. The representative plans to introduce the bill again next year.

Some concerns that were expressed against the bill included fears that Georgia would be required to hire pedophiles and necrophiliacs. Others were concerned the bill would serve as an affirmative action bill that would create a quota system. However, the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community enthusiastically supports the measure, expressing that they are afraid that if their sexual orientation became known at work with the state of Georgia, they would be discriminated against or even fired. The state representative who introduced the bill believes that the bill will have more support in 2013 because it is not an election year.

Currently, 21 other states ban discrimination against public employees based on their sexual orientation. Twelve states have laws that prohibit employment discrimination against state employees based on gender identity and expression. There is no federal law that addresses employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in the federal government. Since 1994, a bill has been proposed in the U.S. Congress that would prohibit discrimination in hiring and employment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity by nonreligious employers with at least 15 employees. The bill has not yet passed and is currently in committee.

If you feel that you have been discriminated against in an employment situation, contact a qualified employment attorney today. You may have a case against the employer, depending on what type of discrimination is involved.