EEOC Issues New Guidance On Religious Dress And Grooming In The Workplace

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has released two new technical assistance documents governing religious dress and grooming and Title VII compliance. The first document, Religious Garb and Grooming in the Workplace: Rights and Responsibilities, discusses the interplay between employment discrimination law and religious dress and grooming practices, and outlines steps employers can take to avoid Title VII violations. The second document is a fact sheet that distils the information in the first document to a one-page guide.

The EEOC cites the following as examples of religious garb/grooming practices: wearing religious clothing or articles (e.g., a Muslim hijab (headscarf), a Sikh turban, or a Christian cross); observing a religious prohibition against wearing certain garments (e.g., a Muslim, Pentecostal Christian, or Orthodox Jewish woman's practice of not wearing pants or short skirts); and adhering to shaving or hair length observances (e.g., Sikh uncut hair and beard, Rastafarian dreadlocks, or Jewish peyes (sidelocks)). The EEOC notes it received 3,721 charges alleging religious discrimination in FY 2013, and that filings in this area have steadily increased over the years.

The guidance, which comprises 16 questions and answers, covers a variety of topics including: employer inquiries about the sincerity of the religious beliefs behind particular garb or grooming practices; whether an employer may take customer preferences into consideration; whether an employer may accommodate an employee by placing him in a non-customer contact position; conflicts with employer uniform or image policies; what notice is necessary to trigger a discussion about reasonably accommodating particular religious garb/grooming practices; and when reasonable accommodation of religious garb or grooming is likely to cause employers undue hardship.

The agency emphasizes that in most instances, employers are required to make exceptions to their usual rules or preferences to permit applicants and...