August 22, 2025
Is Religious Discrimination on the Rise?
I was thinking that I had seen an increase in the number of new stories about lawsuits and charges being filed alleging religious discrimination. Then I saw the EEOC’s announcement “200 Days of EEOC Action to Protect Religious Freedom at Work.”
While many of the cases revolve around employers’ mandatory COVID-19 vaccination requirement, plenty of others do not. Consider a few examples.
August 20th – a staffing and recruiting agency, agreed to pay $217,500 after failing to hire a Muslim job applicant after he asked about a religious accommodation to attend Friday prayer. The company will also train managers, supervisors, hiring coordinators, recruiters and human resources personnel, including [on] the process for workers to appeal denials of religious accommodation.
July 25th – The EEOC announces the largest public settlement in nearly 20 years of $21M to resolve antisemitism charges.
July 2nd – A hotel settled for $850K a claim that it refused to accommodate the sincerely held religious beliefs of a class of employees, which included a diversity of faiths, and retaliated against employees who opposed the discrimination. In addition to monetary relief, the employer agreed to provide training of all employees, managers, and supervisors on employee rights and employers’ obligations regarding religious accommodations under Title VII, and more.
Whether religious discrimination is on the rise or the pursuit and enforcement against it is, take heed. When you provide your employees with harassment prevention training, include all forms of unlawful harassment and discrimination, including religion. Include information about the right to reasonable accommodation. When you train your management team members, educate them about the same, plus ways to avoid even the perception of retaliation when an employee asks for a religious accommodation.
