A US federal agency has issued a comprehensive manual on religious discrimination for workers, citing a dramatic rise in workplace bias against faith minorities, particularly Muslims.

“The goal here is to promote voluntary compliance, to get everyone on the same page, to let them know what the law is,” David Grinberg, spokesman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), told the USA Today on Thursday, July 31.

“We want to stop discrimination before it starts.”

EEOC, responsible for enforcing laws against employment discrimination, issued the Compliance Manual on workplace religious discrimination last week.

The guide aims at implementing provisions of the Civil Rights Act regarding religious discrimination, harassment and accommodation.

The manual, which applies to any business with 15 or more employees, provides guidelines for employers on the best practices to deal with employees from a religious group.

“Employers should work with employees who need an adjustment to their work schedule to accommodate their religious practices.”

The document also protects workers whose faith requires wearing specific religious garments, such as hijab for Muslim women.

It prohibits employers from adopting security requirements for employees or applicants on religious basis.

“For example, an employer may not require Muslim applicants to undergo a background investigation or more extensive security procedures because of their religion while not imposing the same requirements on similarly situated applicants who are non-Muslim.”

Along with the manual, the EEOC also issued a companion question-and-answer fact sheet and best practices booklet, all available on the agency’s website.

The EEOC can bring suit on behalf of victims of discrimination against employers and serves as an adjudicatory for claims of discrimination brought against federal agencies.

Increasing Bias

The agency says its new manual came “in response to an increase in charges of religious discrimination” complaints over the past years.

“Religious discrimination charge filings with the EEOC nationwide have risen substantially over the past 15 years, doubling from 1,388 in Fiscal Year 1992 to a record level of 2,880 in FY 2007.”

The EEOC confirmed that Muslims have faced the sharpest increase in workplace discrimination in recent years.

It documented that the number of discrimination charges filed by Muslims more than doubled from 398 in the year 1997 to 907 last year.

That figure peaked at 1,155 in 2002 in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

“Nasreen, a Muslim ticket agent for a commercial airline, wears a headscarf, or hijab, to work at the airport ticket counter,” the document cited as an example.

“After September 11, 2001, her manager objected, telling Nasreen that the customers might think she was sympathetic to terrorist hijackers.

“She is terminated for wearing it over her manager’s objection.”

In another case, Harinder, who wears a turban as part of his Sikh religion, was fired from his work in a coffee shop because customers mistook him for being a Muslim.

“The manager tells Harinder that he has to let him go because the customers’ discomfort is understandable.”

Muslims in America, estimated between six to seven million, have become sensitized to an erosion of their civil rights since the 9/11 attacks.

Many complain of being discriminated against because of their Islamic attires or identities.

A 2007 survey by Pew Research Center and the Pew Forum found that attitudes toward Muslims and Islam have grown more negative in recent years.

Source: http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1216208228255&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout