Know a Bible-quoting colleague's rights

DEAR CARRIE: I want to know if anything can be done about a colleague who ends her e-mails with Bible verses. I think it's inappropriate because it's unbusinesslike. And I am wondering if it is a violation of the separation of church and state.
-- Too Much Religion?

DEAR TOO MUCH: The answer isn't straightforward because an employer's legal obligation vis a vis your Bible-quoting colleague could be to accommodate her unless the accommodation hurts the business. On the other hand if the religious writer persists after colleagues ask her to stop, that behavior could constitute harassment.

Here's what the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has to say, first about accommodations and hardships.

"Employers not only have the duty to provide reasonable accommodations so that employees may engage in prayer, proselytizing, and other forms of religious expression, but employers also have the responsibility to prevent harassment in the workplace," said Elizabeth Grossman, acting district director of the EEOC's New York district office in Manhattan. But, "employers are not obligated to provide a reasonable accommodation if doing so would constitute an undue hardship."

To determine if allowing an employee to pray, proselytize, or engage in other forms of religious expression in the workplace would pose an undue hardship, employers should consider the potential disruption, she said. Those considerations may include the effect such expression has had or could have on co-workers, on customers, or business operations.

"Expression can create undue hardship if it disrupts the work of other employees or constitutes -- or threatens to constitute -- unlawful harassment," she said.

Religious expression directed toward co-workers might constitute harassment in some situations if it demeans people of other religions, or even if it's not abusive but persists even though the co-workers on the receiving end have made it clear that it is unwelcome, she said.

"As with harassment on any basis, it is permitted and advisable for employers to take action to stop alleged harassment before it becomes severe or pervasive, because while isolated incidents of harassment generally do not violate federal law, a pattern of such incidents may be unlawful," she said.

As for customers, the determination of whether it is an undue hardship to allow employees to engage in religious expression is a "fact-specific inquiry," Grossman said, and will depend on the type of expression, the nature of the business and the combined effect on customer relations.

"For example, one court found that it did not impose an undue hardship for a private-sector employer to allow a cashier to use the general religious greeting "Have a Blessed Day" in accepting payment where it was said in the context of brief, anonymous interactions and had little demonstrable adverse impact on customers or the business," she said.

But, she said that other courts have found undue hardship where religious expression was used in regular interaction with customers.

"Whether or not the client objects, this may be an undue hardship for an employer where the expression could be mistaken as the employer's message," she said. "Where the religiously oriented expression is not limited to use of a phrase or greeting, but rather is in the manner of individualized, specific proselytizing, an employer is far more likely to be able to demonstrate that it would constitute an undue hardship to accommodate an employee's religious expression, regardless of the length or nature of the business interaction."

So what should you do? Speak to your supervisor, show him or her a copy of this column and let the person take it from there.

For more on the law and religion in the workplace click here and here to read  about rights and religious discrimination on the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission website.