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Back in 1964, Congress passed a little thing called The Civil Rights Act. Title VII of the act spells out what a company can and can’t do with regards to all types of discrimination. One of the things a company can’t do is to discriminate in any way against someone’s religious beliefs.
Notice I didn’t say religion. I said religious beliefs. Which, according to documentation provided by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission simply means that you believe what you believe “with the strength of traditional religious views”.
To be protected by Title VII of the act, what you believe doesn’t have to be part of the religion that you normally follow. It doesn’t have to be part of any religion. Moreover, and I’m taking this right from the EEOC web site, “an employee’s belief or practice can be “religious” under Title VII even if it is not followed by others in the same religious sect, denomination or congregation, or even if the employee is unaffiliated with a formal religious organization.”
Title VII defines religion very broadly and includes “regular” religions like Christianity and Judaism as well as fringe “religions” like Pastafarian. Furthermore, a person’s religious beliefs are protected even if they are not part of a formal church or sect and even though they “may seem illogical or unreasonable to others”.
So, I can be a practicing atheist (or non-practicing as the case may be) and claim that I believe I must shout “Froot Loops ROCK!” at the top of each hour while standing on my head. As long as I believe it “with the strength of traditional religious views”, and my employer believes that I believe it, my crazy-ass action is protected by Title VII. And my employer must make reasonable accommodations for me.
According to Title VII, I don’t have to actually believe that Froot Loops rock. All I have to do is claim that I fervently believe that I have to say that they rock, loudly, standing on my head, each and every hour.
I also don’t have to be consistent in my beliefs. For example, I could believe that I must practice my Froot Loops shouting every hour, but only at work, and not during a week when Tampa Bay is playing a home game. That, according to The Civil Rights act of 1964 is perfectly OK.
Now, let’s look at something not quite so ridiculous.
The rules for religious exemptions are pretty clear. They haven’t changed in 57 years. According to Title VII, the employee doesn’t have to give a reason for their beliefs, they just need to claim that they fervently hold those beliefs. So, if someone applies for a religious exemption as a reason to not be coerced by their employer into getting vacksinated, that should be the end of the story.
So, I’m wondering why employers are suddenly not granting religious exemptions for forced vacksinations? It’s not like the employer has a choice. Title VII was written with holes big enough for employees to drive a truck through. All an employee should have to do to request an exemption is to give “God told me not to take the COVID vackseen” as the reason, and that should be it.
But that’s not what’s happening. I’ve watched people jump through hoops to fill out the forms required by their employer to request a religious exemption. They’ve had to obtain signatures from their religious leaders verifying that they believe what they believe.
What the priest or rabbi has to say doesn’t matter. Because the individual’s belief or practice doesn’t need to be held or followed by others in the same religious sect. So, even if their priest, minister or rabbi says that their faith doesn’t prohibit vacksinations, it isn’t relevant. What matters is that the employee believes God told them not to take it.
The employee doesn’t need to be consistent in his or her beliefs. He or she can be totally OK with vaccines in general but claim that God told him or her not to take the COVID vackseens. And nobody can argue with it.
You’ve heard of “innocent until proven guilty”? Well, Title VII essentially means “a believer until proven a skeptic”. In other words, the employer can’t simply decide that an employee doesn’t hold a particular belief, they have to be able to prove that a person doesn’t hold that belief. Which, under the guidance of Title VII, is almost impossible to do.
So how in the world can an employer deny a religious exemption? In theory, they can’t. Even the EEOC recommends employers should accept a claim of a sincerely held religious belief unless the employer can prove the employee is lying. But religious exemptions are being denied all the time. When an employer denies a religious exemption, what they’re really saying is that they know all the things you believe and what you’re saying you believe isn’t one of those things.
In essence, these employers somehow believe they have the ability to read minds and determine what their employees are thinking. That’s some trick. If that were possible, then there would be no need for our legal justice system. Instead of a jury of their peers determining someone’s guilt or innocence, we could just ask Debbie from HR to decide what’s what.
Here’s where it starts to get strange. If an employer decides that they believe an employ believes something, they can grant a religious exemption. But, if they grant an exemption, then they need to also accommodate the employee’s religious beliefs. So, as long as my employer doesn’t acknowledge that I believe I have to periodically, and loudly, proclaim my love for Froot Loops, they can make me stop or fire me. Likewise, if an employer doesn’t acknowledge an employee’s fervent belief that God told them not to get vacksinated, that employee can be fired.
The same people who are responsible for granting the exemptions are responsible for providing accommodations based on any exemption they grant. Which will undoubtedly cost them money. Is it any wonder that the companies are pushing back? That’s a classic case of the fox guarding the henhouse.
Now, I point all this out to show you that, technically, it is very difficult for a company to deny a religious exemption for any reason. Title VII was written in such a way that the employee claiming the exemption has every advantage.
The one thing we know for sure about companies that deny religious exemptions is that the people running those companies aren’t very smart. If they deny a request, then the onus is on them to prove that the employee didn’t deserve the exemption…which, under Title VII is nearly impossible to do.
But, at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter. Because, with the exception of Montana, every U.S. state is an at-will state. Which means that an employer or employee can terminate their working relationship at any time, with or without reason. So, if an employer wants to fire you for whatever reason, they can do so. And they don’t have to tell anyone why they did. In fact, it’s in their best interest NOT to give you a reason, because that reason could be turned against them in a wrongful termination lawsuit.
If a company refuses to grant a religious exemption, then the burden is on them to prove they didn’t violate the civil rights of their employee. But there’s an easier way. All a company has to do to completely circumvent Title VII of The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is to simply fire someone without cause. And then it becomes the employee’s burden to prove that their rights were trampled on by Debbie from HR.
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