It’s Against My Religion!

More and more people are saying that they have a right to discriminate because their religion gives them that right.

Balancing Freedoms in the WorkplaceA recent lawsuit filed in Michigan raises questions about how an employer can balance employees' religious freedoms with employees' sexual orientations.Human Resources Online
By William Atkinson
Thursday, July 30, 2015

Former Ford Motor Co. engineer Thomas Banks said in a federal lawsuit filed in early July that the automaker and an employment services firm both violated his religious freedom when they fired him for posting an anti-gay comment on Ford's website.

Banks, who describes himself as a Christian, worked at Ford for three years on assignment from Rapid Global Business Solutions, an employment service firm.

In July 2014, in response to a Ford intranet article celebrating the 20th anniversary of a group fostering an inclusive workplace for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, Banks posted a comment saying, among other things, that Ford has no place promoting sodomy and immoral sexual conduct. Banks also claimed that the article was an assault on his religious beliefs.

We are going to see this more and more in the workplace. I know of one case where an employee refused to wear an Ally sticker on her badge because if her religion and she used male pronouns when she was assigned a trans woman client. The company policy is that they treat all their clients the same; with respect and dignity.

The article goes on to say,

Does this case have implications for employers beyond those who are involved in this specific case itself?

Many legal experts would say yes.

"I think there will be a run of lawsuits which will claim that the application of the right of a homosexual couple to marry is an unconstitutional infringement on a person's or business owner's religious freedom," says Emilee Boyle Gehling, an attorney with Goosmann Law Firm in Sioux City, Iowa.
[…]
In light of the Banks case, Sasser [chief counsel for Liberty Institute a conservative organization] believes that employers should be careful to review calls for the company to participate in "social issues of the day," to ensure that the company is ready to handle the conversations that such issues may create within the workplace. "Second, employers should train supervisors about Title VII and its implications for people of all faiths, in order to ensure that supervisors treat with care the intersection of social issues the company is promoting and religious objections," he says. "Employers should acknowledge that religious liberty is protected, and that conversations and issue resolution techniques are far superior to taking punitive action against a religiously-motivated employee."

I see many more of these cases coming forward as companies become more inclusive they will start butting heads with religious conservatives who feel that they have a right to discriminate.

It should be interesting to see what happens with that case worker, does she have a legal right to be disrespectful to their clients? Or does the company have the right to require employees to treat all clients with respect and dignity?