Religous Discrimination

The Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA) is the Michigan law that prohibits discrimination based upon religion. The law, MCL 37.2202, states:

An employer must not refuse to hire or recruit, discharge, or otherwise discriminate against an individual with respect to employment, compensation, or a term, condition, or privilege of employment, because of religion.

If you or a loved one has experienced religious discrimination, it is important to talk with a Michigan employment discrimination lawyer with experience in Michigan and federal employment law. Please submit a simple, free and confidential legal consultation form now.

Federal Religious Discrimination Law

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of l964 prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals because of their religion in hiring, firing, and other terms and conditions of employment. The law applies to employers with 15 or more employees, including federal, state, and local government agencies, employment agencies, and labor organizations.

If you or a loved one has experienced religious discrimination, it is important to talk with a Michigan employment discrimination lawyer with experience in Michigan and federal employment law. Please submit a simple, free and confidential legal consultation form now.

Biased Treatment

Employers may not treat employees or job applicants less favorably -- or more favorably -- because of their religious beliefs or practices. For example, an employer may not refuse to hire individuals of a certain religion, may not set stricter promotion requirements for persons of a certain religion, and may not impose different or higher job performance standards, based on an employee's religious beliefs or practices.

Moreover, an employer may not force a worker to participate -- or not to participate -- in religious activity.

If you or a loved one has experienced religious discrimination, it is important to talk with a Michigan employment discrimination lawyer with experience in Michigan and federal employment law. Please submit a simple, free and confidential legal consultation form now.

Reasonable Accommodations

An employer must reasonably accommodate a worker’s sincerely held religious beliefs or practices, unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on the employer.

A reasonable religious accommodation is any adjustment in the work environment, which allows a worker to practice his or her religion. Flexible scheduling, voluntary job substitutions or swaps, job reassignments, lateral transfers, and changes in workplace practices, policies, or procedures, are examples of ways that an employer might avoid interference with a worker's religious beliefs or practices.

On the other hand, an employer is not required to make an accommodation that imposes an undue hardship on its legitimate business interests. To show undue hardship, the employer must have evidence that the requested accommodation of an employee's religious practices would require extraordinary administrative costs, diminish efficiency in other jobs, infringe on other employees' job rights or benefits, impair workplace safety, cause co-workers to carry the accommodated employee's share of potentially hazardous or burdensome work, or conflict with another law or regulation.

If you or a loved one has experienced religious discrimination, it is important to talk with a Michigan employment discrimination lawyer with experience in Michigan and federal employment law. Please submit a simple, free and confidential legal consultation form now.

Religious Expression in the Workplace

An employer must permit a worker to engage in religious expression, if employees are permitted to engage in other forms of personal expression at work, unless the religious expression would impose an undue hardship on the employer. Thus, an employer may not place more restrictions on religious expression than on other expression with a similar effect on workplace efficiency.

If you or a loved one has experienced religious discrimination, it is important to talk with a Michigan employment discrimination lawyer with experience in Michigan and federal employment law. Please submit a simple, free and confidential legal consultation form now.

Harassment

Employers must take steps to prevent religious harassment of their employees. This may be accomplished by implementing an anti-harassment policy and having an effective procedure for reporting, investigating, and eliminating harassing conduct.

Retaliation

It also is unlawful to retaliate against an individual for opposing employment practices that discriminate based on religion, for filing a discrimination charge, or for testifying, or participating in any way in a Title VII investigation, proceeding, or lawsuit.

If you or a loved one has experienced religious discrimination, it is important to talk with a Michigan employment discrimination lawyer with experience in Michigan and federal employment law. Please submit a simple, free and confidential legal consultation form now.

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