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Dress Code in Louisiana

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A female employee who is Muslim wants to wear a headscarf at work in Louisiana. I say it’s not appropriate and doesn’t fit our dress code. Who is right?

According to several court cases, an Islamic woman has the right to wear to work any clothing that protects her modesty, such as headscarf or hijab.

The law that protects this right is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in the workplace based on color, race, nationality, gender or religion. Also under this law, the employer is required to make reasonable accommodations to allow an employee to practice their religious beliefs.

Two conditions are stated within that law. The worker must sincerely hold these religious beliefs, and the adjustments must not impose an undue hardship on the employer.

Undue hardship is applied differently to smaller companies, than to larger employers. An expense of $2,000 for an adjustment could qualify as a hardship for a small business. A larger company would have greater financial resources, so $2,000 probably wouldn’t hit them hard, but an adjustment of say $7,000 could. An example of a hardship for the employer could be that in order for the worker to practice his/her religion, the company would have to hire additional personnel.

As to changing or making exceptions to dress codes, several court cases have ruled that making such an adjustment doesn’t usually constitute undue hardship. Therefore the employer in this case should talk with the employee and come to an agreement regarding proper work attire, an agreement that also fulfills her religious tenets. In this case, too, the employer can detail what types of garments, in this case headscarves, are acceptable.

If, however, the headscarf presents a safety hazard in performing her job, then the employer may have a point. The court has ruled to uphold a company’s dress code in some cases of employee or public safety. For example, in a job where open sparks fly around the work areas, a man wearing a beard could be a fire hazard. The court would then probably side with the employer that the worker be clean-shaven. The court could also rule that the employee be reassigned to a position where his beard did not create a hazard, if such a job were available and suited to the worker’s skills. JH