Stop Religious Harassment Before It Starts

03/05/07

The Case
“Hey,” he said, stopping his boss Fran in the hall. “I have an employee named Abdul, who is a ..."

“Muslim,” she said.“I know about him. There are a few others on the staff, too, right?"

“That’s right,” he said. “Anyway, as a religious accommodation, we let Abdul and the other Muslims pray in one of the conference rooms that’s usually empty in the afternoon.”

“I don’t think I’m going to like this,” Fran said.

“You won’t. There are a couple of roughnecks who work in the warehouse—Rex, Sammy, and Bill Jones, among others. Well, apparently Rex said to Abdul, ‘I’m using the conference room this afternoon to pray to Jesus about the people who died on September 11. Wanna join me? And one of the others keeps bumping into Rasheed as if he’s not there.”

“Uh oh,” Fran said. “We have to put a stop to this at once. Let’s see how our lawyer says to proceed. I want to come out with both guns blazing before this gets out of hand.”

The Analysis
In the wake of the events of September 11, our country has faced extraordinarily difficult times. Employers are facing challenges in the workplace ranging from employee depression and anxiety en masse to scenarios like the one above.

There is little doubt that certain events have and will continue to spark tension between people of Arabic origin and Islamic faith and their coworkers. If problems arise, they’re bound to be inflammatory and emotional situations. The best way to deal with situations like the one above however, is to keep emotions at bay!

Right now, the United States has some real and frightening enemies, some of whom are undoubtedly still living in this country. Nonetheless, it serves little purpose for any of us to expend energy making adversaries out of our Islamic and Arabic coworkers and neighbors. All of us need to be cautious about making generalizations and assumptions about others based on their religion or national origin. Just because people are Islamic or Arabic doesn’t mean they sympathize with the terrorists’ activities or support Osama bin Laden. In fact, they may be quite opposed to their political views and actions against the United States.

Take Immediate Action
Employers have an even more demanding task than the majority of us—they are obligated by law to take steps to prohibit unlawful harassment and discrimination against their employees, regardless of whether the conduct is fueled by feelings of patriotism.

There isn’t much question in the hypothetical situation above that the “roughnecks” in the warehouse have engaged in discriminatory acts that could land this employer in hot water. The only way this employer can avoid liability is to take prompt remedial action to stop the offensive conduct from recurring. Fran or the supervisor needs to sit down immediately with the harassers and explain the nature of harassment, the penalties for any infractions (up to and including termination), and that witnesses have seen them engaging in prohibited, harassing activity. She also needs to give them each a copy of the company’s no-harassment policy to read and sign off on, retaining a copy. She should document the conversation in detail.

Any corrective action taken may be met with anger and resentment due to the outrage these employees are feeling over the past terrorist attacks. However, to avoid liability, this employer must be willing to take effective steps to prohibit religious and national origin discrimination within its walls.

Train Your Managers
One action virtually all employers should be considering today is to conduct some kind of anti-harassment training for managers and supervisors. The goal: to reinforce anti-harassment and discrimination policies and procedures. Remind them that they are the employer’s “first line of defense” against lawsuits. Additionally, remind them that they can be legally responsible for failing to take action to prevent harassment and discrimination.

Further, consider posting or distributing a reminder to all employees. In it, state that while you support expressions of patriotism, you expect employees to treat each other with the same respect and courtesy they gave each other before September 11. Remind them of your stance against unlawful harassment and discrimination and that you won’t tolerate threats, violence, and the like in the workplace regardless of the motivation for such conduct.