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The following is not meant to be legal advice. 

On June 7, 2007, Seyfarth Shaw, LLP hosted a breakfast briefing on religion in the workplace. 

Dana L. Peterson, a partner at Seyfath Shaw, LLP began with statistics on the increase in religious discrimination.  Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Employment and Housing Act prohibit employers from discriminating against individuals based on religion when hiring, terminating, or promoting employees. 

Employers must reasonably accommodate employees’ religious beliefs unless doing so would result in undue hardship.  Factors for determining undue hardship include:  budget, facility size, number of employees, accommodation costs.

One recent case relating to religious discrimination was Noyes v. Kelly Services, 04-17050, Ninth Circuit, May 29, 2007.  The case involved an employee claiming discrimination because the employee was not a member of a fellowship. 

Peterson gave tips for preventing employment claims based on religion in the workplace, including:  training managers to communicate with employees on tolerance for religious practices, and reviewing policies to ensure there are policies that allow for religious freedom.