One can only imagine the flurry of activity at Mar-a-Lago during the first week post-election as President-elect Donald Trump and his inner circle shuffled names and appointments around like deck chairs on a yacht.
There’s one set of especially important chairs that should not be overlooked: federal agencies tasked with protecting Americans’ religious liberties.
If ever there were a time for a new presidential administration to prioritize a bedrock principle of American values like religious freedom, it is now as reports of religious discrimination in the workplace are increasing.
A recent national survey of American workers conducted by the nonprofit Gevura Fund shows many workplaces across the country are fraught with division, harassment, and confusion because of religious discrimination.
For example, 21% of American workers surveyed said they have been treated poorly or harassed over the past year because of their religion. Forty percent of workers believe religious discrimination in the workplace is on the rise. And one-third of workers admitted they are reluctant to share their religious affiliation with others for fear of harassment or poor treatment.
Perhaps most surprising were the reports of religious discrimination reported by workers living in a union household; 31% of survey participants with a union member in the home said they had personally experienced religious discrimination.
The survey also found 1 in 10 Americans has considered a move to a state viewed as more tolerant of their personal beliefs. Union households join Jewish and Muslim workers as the groups of Americans most likely to consider relocating.
Survey participants gave chilling illustrations of the religious discrimination they experienced in the workplace.
Workers reported seeing incidents where colleagues wearing religious dress – a yarmulke or head covering – were asked to sit out of sight from public view. Employees observing Shabbat or daily prayers said they were routinely left out of meetings that conflicted with the time of their religious observation.
For some survey participants, religious beliefs presented a barrier to employment. A Catholic man from Illinois said, “I was told I could not be hired because I was going to take the Pope’s orders.”
World events have turned some workplaces into hostile environments for people of faith, specifically Jews and Muslims.
Research by the Anti-Defamation League paints a dramatic picture for Jewish Americans trying to navigate the workplace after the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. ADL’s 2023 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents recorded a 140% increase in antisemitic incidents in the year following those attacks – the highest number of incidents on record. Incidents recorded by the ADL include verbal harassment, vandalism and assault.
These types of discriminatory behaviors persist in the workplace even though they are not only inappropriate but often unlawful. The U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is the principal federal agency tasked with enforcing federal civil rights laws that prohibit religious and other forms of discrimination in the workplace.
Unfortunately, in recent years the EEOC has given short shrift to protecting the religious liberties of American workers, and instead focused its efforts on advancing Biden’s “whole of government” approach.
One example of the impact of this distraction can be found in the EEOC’s training materials for employers and employees which are woefully outdated and clunky. Example, employers and employees looking for guidance on the EEOC’s Training Institute website on how to deal with religious discrimination will find no recordings of the agency’s in-depth training webinars on the subject.
The EEOC and other federal civil rights agencies, like the Office of Civil Rights, must do better to protect Americans’ fundamental right to practice their religious faiths. The agencies can do so, however, only if they receive sufficient resources and are firmly instructed to deploy those resources to protect people of faith. This includes providing robust educational materials to employers and directly enforcing civil rights laws against employers and unions that infringe on citizens’ religious liberties.
With proper direction from the next administration and sufficient resources, the EEOC and other federal agencies can do much to push back on the religious discrimination that is currently dividing our nation’s workplaces.
