How can religious discrimination be prevented?

There are four main types of religion or belief discrimination.

Direct discrimination

This happens when someone treats you worse than another person in a similar situation because of your religion or belief. For example:

  • a bank refuses you a loan because you're Jewish

Discrimination can occur even where both the discriminator and the person being discriminated against hold the same religious or philosophical belief. For example:

  • a Hindu businessman interviews two women for a job as his personal assistant. One is Hindu and the other is not religious. The Hindu woman is the best candidate at interview but he gives the job to the other woman because he thinks his clients (who are mainly Christian or have no religion or belief) will prefer it. This is direct discrimination because of religion or belief

Indirect discrimination

Indirect discrimination happens when an organisation has a particular policy or way of working that applies to everyone but which puts you at a disadvantage because of your religion or belief. For example:

  • you are Jewish and you finish early on Fridays in order to observe the Sabbath. Your manager has changed the weekly team meetings from Wednesday afternoons to Friday afternoons and you are therefore often absent

Indirect religion or belief discrimination can be permitted but the organisation or employer must be able to show that the policy or way of working is necessary for the way the business operates. This is known as objective justification.

Can I object to a workplace dress code or uniform policy that is against my religion?

Everyone has a human right to manifest their religion or belief under the European Convention on Human Rights. That means you have the right to wear particular articles of clothing or symbols to show that you have a particular religion or belief at your workplace, even if other people of your religion don’t. For example:

  • some people wear a crucifix to show they are Christians, but not all Christians do

However because that human right is a qualified right an employer can prevent you from wearing particular articles of clothing or symbols if it is necessary for the role you are doing. For example:

  • a teacher is asked to stop wearing a floor length garment because it is a trip hazard. If this is necessary to protect health and safety in the workplace and there is no practical alternative, this may be justified
  • a Sikh man works in food preparation. His employer has a policy that no headgear can be worn and staff must use hair nets. This would not be justified if there was a practical alternative that met the business’s health and safety requirements, such as wearing a new or freshly washed turban for each shift

Harassment

Harassment in the workplace occurs when someone makes you feel humiliated, offended or degraded.

Harassment can never be justified. However, if an organisation or employer can show it did everything it could to prevent people who work for it from behaving like that, you will not be able to make a claim for harassment against it, although you could make a claim against the harasser.

The rules about Harassment don’t apply outside the workplace. However, if you are harassed or receive offensive treatment because of religion or belief outside the workplace this may be direct discrimination. For example:

  • a Muslim man visits his local takeaway regularly. Every time he goes in, one of the staff makes comments about him being a terrorist. He finds this offensive and upsetting

Victimisation

This is when you are treated badly because you have made a complaint of religion or belief related discrimination under the Equality Act. It can also occur if you are supporting someone who has made a complaint of religion or belief related discrimination. For example:

  • a woman at work has been harassed by a supervisor because she wears a hijab. Her co-worker saw this happen and is supporting her harassment claim. The co-worker is threatened with the sack. This would be victimisation because the co-worker is supporting her colleague’s claim of harassment

As an employer, you want to ensure that your workplace feels safe and supportive for its employees. Guarding against religious discrimination by setting expected standards and developing clear procedures is an important part of this process.

There are a number of best practices you can take in order to prevent discrimination based on religion or culture, some of which include:

Preventing Discrimination

  • Establish written criteria for evaluating candidates based on their experience and job performance and apply them to all candidates for hire or promotion.
  • During interviews, ask the same questions of all applicants and stick to matters directly related to the position available.
  • Carefully and accurately record business reasons for any employee disciplinary or performance-related actions.
  • When management decisions require the exercise of subjective judgment, reduce the risk of discriminatory decisions by providing thorough training.
  • If confronted with customer biases, such as an adverse reaction to being served by an employee wearing religious garments, consider engaging with and educating the customers regarding any misperceptions they may have and/or the equal employment opportunity laws.

Creating An Inclusive Workplace

There are many ways in which your company can build and modify practices to create a climate of understanding and goodwill.

Religious Dress

Make efforts to allow an employee’s desire to wear a yarmulke, hijab or other religious attire. If there is concern about workplace safety or uniform appearance in a position involving interaction with the public, it may be appropriate to consider whether the employee’s religious views would permit him or her from making an adjustment such as wearing the religious item in the company uniform color(s).

Managers and employees should be trained not to engage in stereotyping based on religious dress and grooming practices and should not assume that atypical dress will create an undue hardship.

Social Gatherings

Be sensitive to the risk of unintentionally pressuring or coercing employees into attending social gatherings when an he or she indicates a religious objection to attending.

Addressing Complaints

Make sure that your company has a well-publicized and consistently applied anti-harassment policy that:

  • Outlines conduct that is prohibited
  • Describes procedures for reporting harassment
  • Contains an assurance that complainants will be protected against retaliation

Likewise, make sure your company has a clearly outlined process for handling complaints which includes prompt, thorough and impartial investigations and corrective actions. To prevent conflicts from escalating to the level of a Title VII violation, employers should immediately intervene when they become aware of objectively abusive or insulting conduct.

If an employee communicates objections to religious conduct that has been directed at them, the employer should take steps to end the conduct even if the employer does not regard it as abusive. When the source of harassment is from a non-employee assigned by a contractor, a supervisor or other appropriate individual in the chain of command should meet with the contractor to demand that it cease, that appropriate disciplinary action be taken if it continues, and/or that a different individual be assigned to the work.

Retaliation

It is hoped that by putting safeguards against religious discrimination in place, that everyone in the workplace can feel protected and represented. However, in some cases, there may be worst-case scenarios that occur. In the event of these situations, employers can reduce the risk of retaliation claims by:

  • Training managers and supervisors to be aware of their anti-retaliation obligations under Title VII, including specific actions that may constitute retaliation.
  • Carefully and timely recording the accurate business reasons for disciplinary or performance-related actions and sharing these reasons with the employee.

How can we prevent religious discrimination?

How to Prevent Religious Discrimination.
Step 1: Understand What Constitutes Religious Discrimination. ... .
Step 2: Create Good Hiring Policies. ... .
Step 3: Establish a Zero Tolerance Policy Against Religious Harassment and Discrimination. ... .
Step 4: Train Employees. ... .
Step 5: Train Managers and Supervisors..

How can we prevent discrimination due to religious beliefs Brainly?

by giving equal freedom..
equal treatment..
equality in politics..
equality in education..

How can religious conflict be prevented in the workplace?

Offer training to all employees..
Provide time off to employees for religious reasons..
Encourage employees to accept differences..
Avoid overreacting to simple issues that may arise..
Adopt a no-tolerance policy for severe issues..

How can we resolve religious conflict?

By dividing the areas of jurisdiction according to religious belonging, religious autonomy arrangements can help to resolve religiously defined conflicts.