Prayer Meeting
Can employers meet Muslims' requests in the workplace?
When 30 Dell temporary employees walked off the job in February,
saying they weren't allowed to conduct sunset prayers, it
brought attention to Muslim prayer accommodation in the
workplace.
Globally, there are an estimated 2 billion Muslims, with 7
million living in the United States. "Islam is one of the
fastest-growing religions in the world," says Rabiah Ahmed of
the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington, DC,
advocacy group for the American Muslim community.
According to CAIR's annual civil rights report, religious
accommodation is consistently one of the top three concerns for
Muslim Americans. Muslims, Ahmed says, are "dealing with
issues other minorities and religious groups have dealt with in
trying to accommodate a religion as well as other
responsibilities." A Muslim's responsibilities include
praying five times a day, ideally in a certain time frame. And
unlike in other faiths, Muslims need to step away from work to
pray, Ahmed says.
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Employers must accommodate workers who ask for that time unless
accommodation creates an undue hardship on the business, says Lori
Carr, an employment partner with law firm Gardere Wynne Sewell in
Dallas. An undue hardship can be financial or nonfinancial, such as
the impact on morale or scheduling. "It's really
[determined] on a case-by-case basis," Carr says.
Ahmed believes entrepreneurs must be aware and flexible.
"[Muslims' responsibilities] can be accommodated if both
parties are willing to work at it," she says. CAIR offers a
booklet that helps companies implement Islamic religious practice
policies that work for both sides.
Employers could soon find it harder to claim undue hardship, no
matter what the religion: In March, the Workplace Religious Freedom
Act--which would update Title VII rules to require employers to
accommodate employees' religious needs unless they would create
"significant difficulty or expense"--re-emerged in
Congress for the seventh consecutive session, co-sponsored by Sens.
Rick Santorum (R-PA) and John Kerry (D-MA). With bipartisan
support, it might not take a wing and a prayer to pass this
time.