Last year, the Supreme Court of the United States sided with a Muslim woman who was denied a job for wearing a headscarf. In 2008, Samantha Elauf wore a headscarf to a job interview at Abercrombie & Fitch, and was denied employment. Sales managers feared the scarf would damage the company’s image. The case against Abercrombie & Fitch is not an isolated example of discrimination against Muslim workers.
In 2015, Carnegie Mellon University published a study showing Muslim jobseekers have a 13 percent lower callback rate than Christian jobseekers. In addition, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has fielded thousands of discrimination complaints from Muslim workers in the last several years.
Workplace Discrimination Against Muslims: What Legal Options Exist?
It is against Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to discriminate against workers for their national origin or religion. California workers also have protections against discrimination under the Fair Employment and Housing Act.
If you are being targeted with religious discrimination, you might experience name-calling, being denied promotions, or getting fired because of your religious beliefs. Victims of discrimination are also denied employment opportunities. The SCOTUS case described above is one example of how businesses can make employment decisions based on the religious beliefs of workers or jobseekers.
The Los Angeles religious discrimination lawyers at Kesluk, Silverstein, Jacob & Morrison, P.C. can help workers who have been unfairly targeted for their spiritual or religious beliefs.