During the last week of the Trump Administration, a majority of the Commissioners of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) voted to approve final revisions to the agency’s religious discrimination guidance under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The new guidance, effective immediately upon its adoption on January 15, has been codified as Section 12 of the agency’s Compliance Manual.
The final version is largely consistent with the EEOC’s proposed revisions published last November, and focuses mainly on exemptions from Title VII coverage, such as those for religious organizations and the so-called ministerial exception. As such, the final revisions should have little practical impact on CWC members. At the same time, the revised guidance does provide some additional discussion of interest to private sector employers, such as the tension between workers who wish to engage in workplace religious speech and those who wish to refrain from hearing such speech.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.