Religious Discrimination Attorney in Van Nuys

The Laws That Protect You from Religious Discrimination in California

Two overlapping bodies of law cover religious discrimination at work. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 applies to employers with 15 or more employees. California’s FEHA goes further: it covers employers with five or more employees for most discrimination claims, and workplaces with even one employee for harassment claims. That broader threshold matters for workers at smaller companies who would have no federal recourse.

FEHA defines “religious creed” broadly. Protection isn’t limited to members of recognized denominations. Any sincerely held belief that occupies in a person’s life a place of importance comparable to organized religion qualifies, including the beliefs of atheists, agnostics, and people whose ethical or moral convictions function like religious ones. The California Workplace Religious Freedom Act of 2012 amended FEHA to explicitly cover religious dress and grooming practices, such as head coverings, religious jewelry, and facial hair or body hair maintained for religious reasons. Discrimination based on association with someone of a particular religion is also prohibited.

Forms of Religious Discrimination Employees Encounter

Religious discrimination doesn’t always look like an outright statement of bias. Adverse employment actions prohibited under FEHA and Title VII include refusal to hire, termination, demotion, denial of promotion, unequal pay, and exclusion from training programs. Harassment, including offensive remarks, mockery of religious practices, and a hostile work environment created or tolerated by management, is also unlawful.

• Refused accommodations: An employer that won’t engage in the interactive process when an employee requests a religious accommodation can itself be found to have discriminated.
• Indirect evidence: Timing of adverse actions, inconsistent policy enforcement, and differential treatment of employees practicing different faiths are all recognized forms of evidence.
• Hiring inquiries: Asking a job applicant about their religious beliefs or practices during the hiring process is prohibited.
• Segregation as “accommodation”: Moving an employee away from customers or the public to avoid their religious dress or grooming is not a valid accommodation under California law.

Reasonable Accommodation Rights Under California Law

California law requires employers to explore all available reasonable alternatives before denying a religious accommodation. Common accommodations include schedule flexibility for Sabbath or holy day observance, shift swaps, prayer breaks, permission to wear religious head coverings or maintain religious grooming, and reassignment of tasks that conflict with sincerely held beliefs. The duty to accommodate applies throughout the employment relationship, not only at the time of hire.

California’s undue hardship standard is significantly harder for employers to satisfy than the federal standard. Federal law requires employers to show that granting an accommodation would result in substantially increased costs relative to the conduct of their particular business, a standard the U.S. Supreme Court clarified in Groff v. DeJoy (2023). California similarly requires proof of significant expense or operational difficulty. Coworker complaints and customer preferences alone don’t meet that bar.