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By: FEDweek StaffOPM has told federal agencies that they are to “robustly” protect and enforce “each federal employee’s right to engage in religious expression in the federal workplace,” including through displays of religious items and, during work breaks, activities such as prayer and evangelizing—so long as it is not “harassing in nature.”
“The Federal workforce should be a welcoming place for Federal employees who practice a religious faith. Allowing religious discrimination in the Federal workplace violates the law. It also threatens to adversely impact recruitment and retention of highly-qualified employees of faith,” says a memo on chcoc.gov, citing protections under the First Amendment and the Civil Rights Act.
“Agencies should allow personal religious expression by Federal employees to the greatest extent possible unless such expression would impose an undue hardship on business operations. And they should review and (if necessary) revise their internal policies to ensure that they appropriately protect religious expression,” it says.
The memo comes soon after guidance to agencies on making accommodations for employees’ religious views and practices, such as through use of telework and work scheduling. Similar to that guidance, the memo stresses that law requires employers including the federal government to accommodate an employee’s religious observances, practices and beliefs unless doing so would cause an “undue hardship” on the conduct of the employer’s business.
Protection extends to “all aspects of religious observance and practice as well as belief,” and not just practices mandated or prohibited by a tenet of the individual’s faith, it adds. However, protection does not extend to “social, political, or economic philosophies, and mere personal preferences.”
“Employees must be allowed to engage in private religious expression in work areas to the same extent that they may engage in nonreligious private expression. Agencies may, however, reasonably regulate the time, place and manner of all employee speech” so long as those restrictions do not discriminate based on content or viewpoint, it says.
Other policies include that (in its words):
* “Employees should be permitted to display and use items used for religious purposes or icons of a religiously significant nature, including but not limited to bibles, artwork, jewelry, posters displaying religious messages, and other indicia of religion (such as crosses, crucifixes and mezuzahs) on their desks, on their person, and in their assigned workspaces.
* “Agencies should allow one or more employees to engage in individual or communal religious expressions in both formal and informal settings alone or with fellow employees, so long as such expressions do not occur during on-duty time. Agencies should not restrict such expressions based merely on hypothetical or potential concerns.
* “Employees may engage in conversations regarding religious topics with fellow employees, including attempting to persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views, provided that such efforts are not harassing in nature. Employees may also encourage their coworkers to participate in religious expressions of faith, such as prayer, to the same extent that they would be permitted to encourage coworkers participate in other personal activities.
* “An employee’s fundamental rights, as a private citizen, of personal religious expression are not limited by the venue or hearer, or merely because the employee is a government employee, and therefore may not be suppressed due to the religious nature of the expression. However, when public employees make statements pursuant to their official duties, they are not speaking as citizens for First Amendment purposes, and the Constitution does not insulate their communications from employer discipline.
* “An employee’s ability to make religious expressions in their personal capacities in areas accessible to the public should be treated in the same manner as if those expressions are made in areas inaccessible to the public as their rights to free expression are not limited upon entering a public facility.”
The memo also addresses several considerations regarding workers who do not hold to the same views. For example, it says that a coworker’s “dislike” of a religious practice or expression in the workplace is not relevant to whether it is creating an undue burden. Also, an employee who requests that others not be allowed to gather in an empty conference room for prayer “should politely be told his coworkers’ conduct will be allowed to continue as it is permissible.”
However, while an employee may advocate for a religious faith during conversation during a break, “if the non-adherent requests such attempts to stop, the employee should honor the request.”
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See also,
Top 10 Provisions in the Big Beautiful Bill of Interest to Federal Employees
A Pre-RIF Checklist for Every Federal Employee, From a Federal Employment Attorney
Work Longer or Take the FERS Supplement Now: Which is Better?
Doubling Your TSP (C Fund vs G Fund)
