Dive Brief:

• A worker who decides to wear certain clothing or groom himself or herself a certain way due to their religion gets to do that under federal civil rights law unless the business can show that it just cannot be done safely or another valid reason.
• The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission put out new guidance last month to make it clear when employers are out of bounds objecting to religious dress or grooming.
• The EEOC has a website that gives examples, but it also makes clear that businesses are on different ground if they object to one man having a beard because he likes to have one and another man that says it's a religious matter to him.

Dive Insight:

This seems like an issue that may come up more with clothes than hair or beards. The website gives an example of a coffee shop clerk who cannot be fired even though he is a Sikh who wears a turban and construction workers who used to come in every day are staying away because they think he's a Muslin. What would happen in a similar situation where hard hats are required on a construction site?