Religion Discrimination

Long Island Religious Discrimination Lawyers

Has an employer treated you differently than other employees because of your religion? Contact a Long Island religious discrimination lawyer at Famighetti & Weinick PLLC to discuss your case.

Discrimination based on an employee’s religion is illegal under federal, New York State, and New York City law. Yet, employee’s who are Muslim, Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, or who adhere to any other sincerely held religious belief, often experience workplace discrimination.

Religion based decisions in the workplace are off-limits. Employees cannot be forced to participate in certain religious activity in the workplace. Employers are also prohibited from treating employees of a certain religion differently than other employees because of the employer’s own biases. In addition to protecting traditional religions, the law also protects employee’s who have a sincerely held belief. Long Island religious discrimination lawyers can help determine whether your beliefs are protected.

Religious discrimination in the workplace can take many forms. Below are some examples.

• If an employer calls a Muslim employee a terrorist, gives the employee less hours compared to employees of other religions, assigns him to the most grueling jobs, and tells the employee he is afraid that at some point he is going to blow up the building, this may be harassment. Harassment in the workplace that creates a hostile work environment for the employee is illegal under federal, New York State, and New York city law.
• If a Christian job applicant is told that during her interview she is the most qualified candidate and minutes later, after reading through the rest of her file and learning what Christian sect she is a follower of, is told, that she can’t work at the company.
• If a Muslim employee asks his boss if he can modify his work schedule during Ramadan so that he can pray and his boss denies the request for time off. Employers are required to reasonably accommodate employee’s religious request unless it would be an undue hardship. Without at least attempting to discuss how they could reach a middle ground and by instead immediately dismissing the employee’s request, the employer’s actions may be considered discrimination.
• If a non-Jewish employee who is married to a Jewish man, is denied a promotion for which she is the most qualified individual because her boss learned that her husband was Jewish, this may be discrimination. Federal, New York State, and New York City law prohibits employers from engaging in associational discrimination.

According to the 2017 Fiscal Year (“FY”) charge statistics released by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”), religion-based discrimination charges filed with the EEOC in New York during the 2017 FY reached an all-time high.

The line graph below shows the percentage of religion-based discrimination charges the EEOC received from New York beginning in FY 2010 until FY 2017. If you need an assistance filing a charge of discrimination based on religion with the EEOC a Long Island religious discrimination lawyer at Famighetti & Weinick PLLC can help.

While the number of religion-based discrimination charges filed nationwide with the EEOC remained low during the 2016/17 fiscal year when compared to other discrimination charges such as race, the rise in religion based charges in New York has not gone unnoticed by the Long Island religious discrimination lawyers at Famighetti & Weinick PLLC.