Religious Discrimination In The Workplace

Religion discrimination protects employees from being discriminated against because of their religion. “An employer cannot discriminate against their employee based on their religion” (page 50). Robinson uses an example of the Muslim employee and a Jewish employee. The Muslim employee wants to cover her body where only her eyes, hands, and feet are showing due to her religion. Even though this may violate the dress code, a manager has to accommodate the religious belief as long as it is not hazardous to the employee’s safety and health. The Jewish employee asks to leave at 5:00 pm on Fridays or asks off on Saturdays to attend religious services. “If a manager has a reason to believe that an employee is faking or exaggerating the religious belief,

“A disability defined, under the Americans Disability Act (ADA), is a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of the employee” (page 55). Disability discrimination prevents employers from discriminating against employees with a physical or mental disability in the workplace. As a manager, if an employee with a disability is hired, there should be accommodation made for the employee to help the employee successfully perform the job required. However, if the employer cannot make accommodations or the mechanisms do not exist to help the employee, “the employer should not hire or retain the disabled employee” (page 53). When interviewing applicants, a manager cannot ask if they have a disability or question the disability. Robinson suggests that managers can ask what jobs they can or cannot perform in the workplace. Robinson uses the example of a clerical job. The job required the employees to be able to type 70 words a minute but a disabled employee can only type 50 words a minute with accommodations. The employer is not required to keep the employee. An employee is required to furnish documentation of the disability if the employer is unsure if the employee has a disability and asks for medical records. An employer does not have to accommodate the employee who fails to provide documentation or refuses to provide

Robinson does a successful job by making the book flow properly. He writes the book to point out the most common illegal discrimination laws. The acronym “REGARDS” is a good way for anyone to remember race discrimination, ethnicity discrimination, gender discrimination, age discrimination, religion discrimination, disability discrimination, and sexual orientation discrimination. As a business student, I should not allow discrimination against an employee or job applicant affect my decision in hiring, firing, demoting, or promoting within the workplace. Robinson clarifies the difference between discrimination and the way a manager should think to better the workplace environment. The tips that Robinson gives will benefit any student or employer by giving ideas on how to handle the possible situations that may occur in the