One of the reasons we are sometimes fearful of taking action in some area of our lives is that we don’t know the rules or the playing field.  One area where it can be foggy is in with religious freedom in the workplace.  Below are the current guidelines that govern religious speech at work.

The first amendment protects an employee's right of free speech and association.  Additionally, employees have their religious rights protected by the Civil Rights Act (CRA) of 1964.   The CRA states that employees cannot be discriminated against based on: race, skin color, gender, disability, nationality, or religious beliefs.

The Courts, however, have interpreted the religion provisions of Civil Rights Act of 1964 pretty narrowly.  It takes some explanation to understand it fully, but the basic idea is that the employer has to accommodate the employee's religious beliefs, but the employee has to cooperate with the employer in that accommodation.

In general, this means that an employee can talk about religious matters with his/her co-workers at work, but there are a couple of limitations on this:

•  Religious Harassment of Others.  If a co-worker asks the employee not to talk with him/her, the communication should cease.  If the employee continues to pursue the co-worker, this could be considered harassment and result in discipline by the employer.
  
• Company Time.  A company has a right to expect its employees to work on company business while on the job. Therefore, the company may restrict non-work related speech during working hours.  On breaks or at lunch the situation is different, but if the company does not want people talking about personal things while they are working, it has a right to say so.  The only limit on this is that the company has to be consistent in applying its policies.  So, if the company only prohibits religious speech, that would be wrong.
  
• Personal Work Space.  The issue of what an employee can put in his/her work space is more complicated.  Generally, personal religious articles should be okay, but a company does have a right to set certain standards for the work environment if it chooses to do so.  This means that a Bible on the desk where other personal items are allowed should be okay, but a Bible on a machine stand, where personal items are not allowed and might present a danger would not be okay.  This example presents two ends of a continuum, in between, it will depend on company standards and work related circumstances.
  
•  Religious Clothing or Symbols.   Generally, an employer cannot regulate this.  But if the employer has a uniform policy, or if there are safety concerns about jewelry which are legitimate the employer has a right to limit these.
  
• Government Employees. If the employer is a government employer AND the employee has a public role, there are special rules.  They do not lose all of their constitutional rights, but they have to be careful when they are acting on behalf of the government.

This is a very general explanation of the law.  How it applies to individual employee situations depends upon a lot of factors.