Question

View this article/video about a 2015 Supreme Court decision against a major clothing brand and retailer.

          SCOTUS Rules in Favor of Muslim Woman in Suit Against Abercrombie and Fitch

As a manager, how would you maintain consistent standards, while also accommodating religious differences?

Answer 1

The problem highlighted here is how to accomodate religious differences while hiring (specifically) as well as while working in general. This assumes importance as the Consitution and the labour laws of the country guarantee equality of treatment while hiring and while working for all religions. In this specific case a muslim woman was not hired due to her face cover (hijab) which ostensibly would not have gone down well with customers.The company Abercrombie and Fitch claimed that they were not aware that this dress was part of her religion. The Supreme Court dismissed the company's argument as this is common knowledge that this dressing was part of muslim women culture. The company could have enquired about the dress being part of her religion from the woman as they did not find any other criterion for not hiring her.

As a manager I would adopt a pragmatic approach to this issue to maintain standards while accomodating religious differences. I had a personal experionce at work which I would like to highlight. I was working as a Supply chain manager for a healthy cafe chain which had a centralized kitchen. There was a muslim warehouse incharge who had to come to the kitchen cold storage to keep count of the items. He could not cut his beard due to religius affiliation. However it was mandatory to be complete clean shave as per company's policy and head was to be covered all time. I therefore spoke with higher management and allowed him to work with his beard being covered at all times along with his head. This criterion of beard being covered in the kitchen and cold storage was inviolable. He agreed for the same and things worked out well going forward. Thus similar pragmatic approch will need to be adopted so that the company's standards are maintained while accomodating the religious differnces in mind.