Despite the fact that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) receives a relatively small percentage of charges each year alleging religious discrimination — just 3.9 percent of all charges filed with the agency last year alleged such discrimination — the Commission continues to devote a fair amount of attention to combating workplace religious discrimination.
Most recently, the EEOC released a fact sheet on religious discrimination that is aimed at young workers, as part of the “Youth @ Work” program initiated by the agency in 2004. The EEOC also announced that it will intensify data collection efforts related to religious discrimination complaints, and partner with the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) in conducting outreach on issues of religious discrimination.
These actions are consistent with some of the recommendations made in a new report issued by the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) titled “Combating Religious Discrimination Today.”
Among other things, the DOJ report calls on the federal government to “do more to ensure that the public knows how to meaningfully respond to religion-based workplace discrimination,” provide “targeted efforts and training to employers about their responsibilities,” and put greater attention and focus on “data collection about religious discrimination in employment, and on accurately identifying discrimination against particular faiths as well as against people who identify as nonreligious.”
A copy of the EEOC’s new fact sheet “Religion & Your Job Rights” is available here, and a copy of the DOJ’s report is available here.
Members of the Equal Employment Advisory Council (EEAC) can read more here.