Equal Employment Opportunities Question (Charlotte: catholic schools, exemption, living in)

[dandevder]

I have a question I hope someone here can answer for me.

While bringing a neighbors daughter to preschool today at a local church, I overheard a job interview being conducted. Me being the nosy type had to listen for a moment and this is what I overheard...

person 1: So what denomination are you?
person 2: Christian
person 1: How often do you attend church services?
person 2: I try to attend at least 2 times a month. It depends on our work schedules.
person 1: So you are not devout?
person 2: I am not following where this line of questioning is going. I would love to take a few minutes to go over my certifications, training, and experience though.
person 1: Thanks you for your time. Those are all of the questions I have for you today.

And I watched this young professional women walk out madder than a hornet. Is this possibly at all legal? Even for a church? It is a preschool program. I do not think I would want my child attending this place and am not sure if I should even mention it to my neighbor...who by the way wants to apply for the same job there.

Thank you all for taking the time to answer. I am not looking to start a religion war, but would like to know...Can they ask those types of questions in an interview? Isn't that being discriminated upon?

[mm34b]

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals because of their religion in hiring, firing, and other terms and conditions of employment. Title VII covers employers with 15 or more employees, including state and local governments. It also applies to employment agencies and to labor organizations, as well as to the federal government.

While Title VII prohibits most employers from making hiring, firing and other employment decisions based on an applicant or employee's religious beliefs or practices (or lack thereof), it is not per se illegal to ask applicants questions regarding their religious background, beliefs, and practices. Rather, such questions would be potential evidence of the employer's discriminatory intent if a religious discrimination claim was filed by an applicant alleging he or she was not hired based on religion, except in the case of "religious" organizations, which are allowed to employ people of their own religion.

Title VII's exception for "religious organizations" states that the law will not apply to "a religious corporation, association, educational institution, or society with respect to the employment of individuals of a particular religion to perform work connected with the carrying on by such corporation, association, educational institution, or society of its activities." 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-1(a). A similar exemption exists for certain religiously-affiliated schools if they are, in whole or in part, owned, supported, controlled, or managed by a particular religion or religious group, or if the curriculum is directed toward the propagation of a particular religion. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(e)(2)

The "religious" organization exception applies only to those institutions whose "purpose and character are primarily religious." Although no one factor is dispositive, significant factors include whether its articles of incorporation state a religious purpose, whether its day to day operations are religious, and whether it is for profit. That determination must be based on "[a]ll significant religious and secular characteristics." The determination of whether a particular employer falls within the "religious" organization exception permitting religious preference in hiring is made on a case-by-case basis.

If an organization or school is exempt from Title VII's religious discrimination provisions, then it can likely ask applicants about religious background, beliefs, and practices and make employment decisions based on the answers to those questions without violating Title VII. The "religious" organization exception, however, is limited to discrimination based on religion, so even "religious" organizations are generally not permitted to discriminate on other protected bases, such as race, national origin, or sex.

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

[lisaf]

I am an HR Director, and can assure you that interview is COMPLETELY illegal.

One may not ask any questions in the USA about religion, sexual orientation, whether someone is married, has kids, and on and on.

If you work at a cigarette company, for example, someone can legally be asked: "how do you feel about working for a tobacco company?" And a company has every right not to hire someone who responds that they do not agree with smoking, for example. Smokers are not a protected class.

When it comes to hiring practices and legal questions--there is no separation of church and state, so to speak. They can absolutely be sued for discrimination. And the law does protect against religious discrimination.

[dandevder]

"Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of l964 prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals because of their religion in hiring, firing, and other terms and conditions of employment. Title VII covers employers with 15 or more employees, including state and local governments. It also applies to employment agencies and to labor organizations, as well as to the federal government."

MM23B, So does that mean a place that emplys less than 15 is not covered under this law?

[mm34b]

Originally Posted by dandevder

"Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of l964 prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals because of their religion in hiring, firing, and other terms and conditions of employment. Title VII covers employers with 15 or more employees, including state and local governments. It also applies to employment agencies and to labor organizations, as well as to the federal government."

MM23B, So does that mean a place that emplys less than 15 is not covered under this law?

Yes, but I found a better answer to your original question and have updated my previous post. Take a look.

[lovesMountains]

Originally Posted by lisaf

I am an HR Director, and can assure you that interview is COMPLETELY illegal.

One may not ask any questions in the USA about religion, sexual orientation, whether someone is married, has kids, and on and on.

If you work at a cigarette company, for example, someone can legally be asked: "how do you feel about working for a tobacco company?" And a company has every right not to hire someone who responds that they do not agree with smoking, for example. Smokers are not a protected class.

When it comes to hiring practices and legal questions--there is no separation of church and state, so to speak. They can absolutely be sued for discrimination. And the law does protect against religious discrimination.

This "interview" no doubt occured in a church/temple run preschool so you are wrong about what happened being illegal. Churches are permitted to ask this question of their employees. And really, doesn't that make sense to everyone? If I were a devout Jew sending my child to the Jewish preschool I would have the expectation that my child would be learning in an environment where the adults taught and modeled Jewish customs. Same thing as a Catholic, although the Catholic schools will hire teachers of other faiths, as long as that teacher is not the one teaching the religion portion of each school day. But then preschools are different though than regular schools, they belong to the church and as such can "discriminate" in this way if they like.

[Charlotte ePro]

That's the thing with Charlotte. Sure it's illegal on the federal level... But the christian entity here can be very arrogant. Not trying to trash my city, but a lot more quesitonable things like that go on here. You also have to consider the fact that if something like that went to trial here, the majority of the jury pool would have some sort of bias in favor of the defendant, as would the majority of possible judges.

[Highpointer]

Originally Posted by lisaf

One may not ask any questions in the USA about religion, sexual orientation, whether someone is married, has kids, and on and on.

I have been asked whether I was single or married during job interviews. I am currently interviewing for a job and one of the interviewers asked me that question just a few days ago.

At a small engineering company in Salt Lake City once, I was asked both about my marital status and whether I was LDS. (Most of the people at this company were Mormon). I am not LDS and I am not married (never been married), yet I did get an offer from this company. However, I was living in Denver at the time and I got another offer from a company in Denver, so I didn't accept that job.

Ken Akerman
Tempe, AZ

[ruiner]

Let's rephrase that a little:

"Thats the thing with human beings. Although it's illegal on the federal level . . . but people can be very arrogant . . ."

You can't pin this on Christians, I'm sure Jewish temples, Muslim Mosques and so on are the same way.

Originally Posted by Charlotte ePro

That's the thing with Charlotte. Sure it's illegal on the federal level... But the christian entity here can be very arrogant. Not trying to trash my city, but a lot more quesitonable things like that go on here. You also have to consider the fact that if something like that went to trial here, the majority of the jury pool would have some sort of bias in favor of the defendant, as would the majority of possible judges.

[AOYAS]

Originally Posted by lisaf

I am an HR Director, and can assure you that interview is COMPLETELY illegal.

One may not ask any questions in the USA about religion, sexual orientation, whether someone is married, has kids, and on and on.

If you work at a cigarette company, for example, someone can legally be asked: "how do you feel about working for a tobacco company?" And a company has every right not to hire someone who responds that they do not agree with smoking, for example. Smokers are not a protected class.

When it comes to hiring practices and legal questions--there is no separation of church and state, so to speak. They can absolutely be sued for discrimination. And the law does protect against religious discrimination.

Sorry, but that's incorrect, with regard to the op's specific situation/question. Although businesses cannot hire or fire an employee based on the person's religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc (all of the protected classes), churches and other institutions whose main function or purpose is religious in nature, are exempt from this law, with regard to making hiring/firing decisions based on religious matters.

While it is illegal for churches and other religious organizations to hire or fire an employee based upon gender, sexual orientation, race, etc, it is within their rights to make hiring/firing decisions based upon religion of or religious attributes of the employee. Religious institutions can even legally make hiring/firing decisions, in certain situations, based on other protected classes such as marital status, if the church can prove that its hiring/firing decision is related to a religious matter (although those situations can get tricky). For instance, if a church discovers that one of its employees is an unwed mother, living with her child and unwed boyfriend, the church could fire that employee if the church's religious doctrine openly prohibits unmarried cohabitation and/or childbirth out of wedlock.

Here's one of the many online articles that explain such situations:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/bcl...-003-7.52.html

You can also look up the Civil Rights Act online, which clearly defines this exception for religious institutions.

So, in the specific case of the op and what s/he witnessed, there was nothing illegal about it.