Human Resource Blog

Dress Code in Nevada

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

We suggest you sit down with the employee and talk about what modifications she would require to meet her religious requirements. Federal law – in this case, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – makes it illegal to discriminate against employees because of their religion.

The law requires that employers must make what are called reasonable accommodations for a worker’s sincerely held religious beliefs or practices – unless the accommodation caused undue hardship to the employer.

Any number of court cases have indicated that exceptions to the dress codes usually are “reasonable accommodations.”

And court cases have backed an Islamic woman’s right to wear a headscarf, hajib, or whatever clothing, on religious grounds, assures her modesty.

In one case, a car rental agency in Phoenix terminated a Muslim woman for not removing her headscarf. It was during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. When the woman filed a claim of discrimination through the EEOC, she won the case. She was awarded $287,000. The money included lost wages and back pay, and a $250,000 fine for violation of the law.

Two Muslim men working for a New Jersey town sued because of a dress code requiring men to be clean-shaven. But they argued successfully that beards were required by their faith. In backing them, the court said accommodating the men on religious grounds would be reasonable.

But what constitutes undue hardship?  When an accommodation is expensive, that might be considered an undue hardship. A religious accommodation, for example, that demanded an employer hire an additional worker, full time, would likely be an undue hardship. It will depend on the size of the company. For example, $2,000 a year might be an undue hardship at a small firm. But $7,000 a year might be reasonable for a large one.

In some cases, dress codes have been backed by courts when the safety of either employees or the public is at stake. If the two Muslim men mentioned above worked in an area with open sparks, for example, the beards might be considered a fire hazard. JH