Religious Liberty Coalition Speaks Out Against Workplace Segregation

Religious and civil liberty advocates, including the Baptist Joint Committee, wrote a letter to the EEOC urging an increase in the agency's enforcement of certain anti-discrimination provisions. RNS reports:

In a March 25 letter submitted to the EEOC, the groups asked the agency to “exercise its regulatory authority” and enforce Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on religion.

The organizations are concerned that adherence to religious dress can cause segregation for employees, citing examples of a Muslim woman in a headscarf or a Sikh man in a turban, where courts ruled for employers who segregated those employees for their attire.

 You can read the letter here (pdf). Here's a snippet:

[A]t least two federal courts in recent years have misinterpreted Title VII in ways that allow employers to segregate visibly religious employees and job applicants from customers and the general public without violating the law.
…
We believe that segregating such individuals in the workplace inherently constitutes an “adverse employment action” relating to the “terms, conditions, or privileges of employment” and that segregating individuals from customers in the name of so-called “corporate image” policies is inherently unreasonable. Such policies reinforce bigoted stereotypes about what American workers should look like; prevent employees of faith from gaining customer service experience, thwarting their professional growth; and clearly undermine the integrative purpose of Title VII. Workplace segregation is discrimination.