CAPLAW e-Bulletin
July 30, 2008 

A series of brief e-mail reports from CAPLAW on current legal developments affecting Community Action Agencies

EEOC Issues New Compliance Manual Section on Religious Discrimination

Last week, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a new compliance manual section on religioius discrimination in the workplace, as well as a question-and-answer fact sheet and a best practices booklet on the topic.

The new compliance manual section includes: a review of the relevant provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal law prohibiting religious discrimination in the workplace; EEOC policies on religious discrimination, harassment and accommodation; information on when employers are and are not required to accommodate religious expression by their employees; and examples of how employers can accommodate such religious expression when the law requires that they do so.
 
According to the EEOC, religious discrimination charge filings with the Commission nationwide have doubled in the past 15 years.  The EEOC issued the new section in response to this increase, increased religious diversity in the United States, and requests for guidance from those investigating and litigating claims of religious discrimination.

 
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Community Action Program Legal Services, Inc. (CAPLAW) is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to providing legal assistance and education to Community Action Agencies. This message is being distributed to CAPLAW's network of members, attorneys and others working in the Community Action field. Members of this network receive occasional e-mail messages from CAPLAW with information on new legal developments, announcements of upcoming CAPLAW training events and new CAPLAW publications, and other information of interest to those in the Community Action field.