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IWS Documented News Service
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Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor---------------------- Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau
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ILR Press (an imprint of Cornell University Press)

ENCOUNTERING RELIGION IN THE WORKPLACE:

The Legal Rights and Responsibilities of Workers and Employers

Raymond F. Gregory

http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=9866

$19.95s paper

2010, 280 pages, 6 x 9

ISBN: 978-0-8014-7660-0   

$55.00x cloth

2010, 280 pages, 6 x 9

ISBN: 978-0-8014-4954-3

In a recent survey, 20 percent of the workers interviewed reported that they had either experienced religious prejudice while at work or knew of a coworker who had been subjected to some form of discriminatory conduct. Indeed, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the filing of religious discrimination charges under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (which prohibits discrimination in employment based on race, color, national origin, sex, and religion) increased 75 percent between 1997 and 2008. The growing desire on the part of some religious groups to openly express their faith while at work has forced their employers and coworkers to reconsider the appropriateness of certain aspects of devotional conduct. Religion in the workplace does not sit well with all workers, and, from the employer’s perspective, the presence of religious practice during the workday may be distracting and, at times, divisive. A thin line separates religious self-expression—by employees and employers—from unlawful proselytizing.

In Encountering Religion in the Workplace, Raymond F. Gregory presents specific cases that cast light on the legal ramifications of mixing religion and work—in the office, on the factory floor, even within religious organizations. Court cases arising under Title VII and the First Amendment must be closely studied, Gregory argues, if we are to fully understand the difficulties that arise for employers and employees alike when they become involved in workplace disputes involving religion, and his book is an ideal resource for anyone hoping to understand this issue.

Reviews

"This book offers an excellent and engaging account of the complex and increasingly important issue of religion and the workplace. It will be of great interest to employment lawyers as well as to those concerned with religious rights."—Lucy Vickers, Oxford Brookes University, author of Religious Freedom, Religious Discrimination and the Workplace

"Encountering Religion in the Workplace is an important book for students of labor and employment law, professors, attorneys, and anyone interested in the role of religion in a secular society at a time when discussions of religion are so pervasive. The scope of issues of religion in the workplace is broad and the content complex; Raymond F. Gregory covers these areas in depth without sacrificing clarity. This is true for more straightforward issues as well as areas where legal issues are in tension. Gregory shows the contradictions that exist in balancing the free exercise of religion with rights to be free from religious proselytizing or from governmental establishment of religion."—Risa L. Lieberwitz, Cornell University

About the Author

Raymond F. Gregory is the author of Unwelcome and Unlawful: Sexual Harassment in the American Workplace, also from Cornell, Norman Thomas: The Great Dissenter, Women and Workplace Discrimination, and Age Discrimination in the American Workplace.

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This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.

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Stuart Basefsky                   
Director, IWS News Bureau                
Institute for Workplace Studies 
Cornell/ILR School                        
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor             
New York, NY 10016                        
                                   
Telephone: (607) 255-2703                
Fax: (607) 255-9641                       
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu                  
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