wfn.org | Guidelines for Religious Expression

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (273
notes).

Note 273 modified by UMNS on Aug. 18, 1997 at 15:10 Eastern (4583 characters).

                                
                           

Contact:  Joretta Purdue                         459(10-71B){272}
          Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722          Aug. 15, 1997

NOTE TO EDITORS: This list or a shortened version may be used
with UMNS story #459 {271}

Guidelines for religious expression
issued Aug. 14 by the President

     Examples of the new guidelines for religious expression in
the workplace issued by President Clinton Aug. 14 include:
     *  An employee may keep a Bible or Koran on his or her
private desk and read it during breaks.
     *  An agency may restrict all posters, or posters of a
certain size, in private work areas, or require that such posters
be displayed facing the employee, and not on common walls; but
the employer typically cannot single out religious or anti-
religious posters for harsher or preferential treatment.
     * In informal settings, such as cafeterias and hallways,
employees are entitled to discuss their religious views with one
another, subject only to the same rules of order as apply to
other employee expression. If an agency permits unrestricted non-
religious expression of a controversial nature, it must likewise
permit equally controversial religious expression.
     * Employees are entitled to display religious messages on
items of clothing to the same extent that they are permitted to
display other comparable messages.
     * Employees generally may wear religious jewelry or
medallions over their clothes or so that they are otherwise
visible. Typically, this alone will not affect workplace
efficiency, and therefore is protected.
     * One employee invites another employee to attend worship
services at her church, though she knows that the invitee is a
devout adherent of another faith. The invitee is shocked and asks
that the invitation not be repeated. The original invitation is
protected, but the employee should honor the request that no
further invitations be issue.
     * A supervisor may invite co-workers to a child's
confirmation in a church, a daughter's bat mitzvah in a
synagogue, or to his or her own wedding at a temple. BUT, a
supervisor should not say to an employee, "I didn't see you in
church this week. I expect to see you there this Sunday."
     * On a bulletin board on which personal notices unrelated to
work regularly are permitted, a supervisor may post a flyer
announcing an Easter musical service at her or his church, with a
handwritten notice inviting co-workers to attend. BUT, a
supervisor should not circulate a memo announcing that he will be
leading a lunch-hour Talmud class that employees should attend in
order to participate in a discussion of career advancement that
will convene at the conclusion of the class.
     * An employee repeatedly makes derogatory remarks to other
employees with whom she is assigned to work about their faith or
lack of faith.
     * During lunch, certain employees gather on their own time
for prayer and Bible study in an empty conference room that
employees are generally free to use on a first-come, first-served
basis. Such a gathering does not constitute religious harassment
even if other employees with different views on how to pray might
feel excluded or ask that the group be disbanded.
     * An agency must adjust work schedules to accommodate an
employee's religious observance -- for example, Sabbath or
religious holiday observance -- if an adequate substitute is
available, or if the employee's absence would not otherwise
impose an undue burden on the agency.
     * An employee must be permitted to wear religious garb, such
as a crucifix, a yarmulke, a head scarf or hijab, if wearing such
attire during the work day is part of the employee's religious
practice or expression, so long as wearing of such garb does not
unduly interfere with the functioning of the work place.
     * An employee should be excused from a particular assignment
if performance of that assignment would contravene the employee's
religious beliefs and the agency would not suffer undue hardship
in reassigning the employee to another detail.
     * An applicant for employment in a governmental agency who
is a  Jehovah's Witness should not be compelled, contrary to her
religious beliefs, to take a loyalty oath the form of which is
religiously objectionable.
     * At Christmas time, a supervisor places a wreath over the
entrance to the office's main reception area. This course of
conduct is permitted.
                            #  #  #

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