Religious Rights on the Job

From the March 3, 2006, issue of The Week (my favoite mag), p. 33:

The Civil Rights Act mandates religious tolerance at work, said Matt Villano in The New York Times. By law, the religious practices of employees should be accom­modated, as long as they don't interfere with day-to-day tasks. An employee can pray in the office, for example, but if he keeps asking colleagues to join in despite repeated nos, he "may have crossed the line into a form of harassment." But harassment goes both ways. Repeatedly asking a religious co-worker to join a basketball tournament betting pool or to go for a round of drinks after work could violate his rights. Just remember, said Robbie Blinkoff of the Context-Based Research Group, that "religion is a tough issue for everyone." A proposed law could soon expand the rights of religious workers, said Gil A. Abramson in the Baltimore Daily Record. The Workplace Religious Freedom Act would require employers to engage in an "affirmative and bona fide effort" to accommodate on-the-job religious prac­tices, such as a time and place for prayer in the office or the use of vacation time for religious holidays. The act would also require companies to accommodate reli­gious employees unless the concessions would cause "significant difficulty or expense," a stricter standard for employ­ers to meet.