You’ve got a policy against facial piercings and visible tattoos. Sounds fair. But what happens when an employee claims to be a member of the “Church of Body Modification?”

That’s what happened to one employer when a worker claimed her religion required her to display “facial jewelry” at all times. The company said no. She spent most of her time dealing with customers and was bound by a strict dress code.

She sued, but the company won. The court ruled it was OK to require employees to look professional in front of customers (Cite: Cloutier v. Costco).

Going the other way

The keys to victory in that case: 1) business need, and 2) a consistently enforced policy. Not all companies have been so lucky in court.

In another case, an employee was told to cover tattoos he had on his arms. He refused, because they were religious symbols. He was fired, and he sued.

In court, the company claimed that he dealt with customers so it had a legitimate business reason to ask him to cover up. But the company had no written policy banning employee tattoos, and the guy had been working for six months before anyone mentioned the problem. The company lost the case and eventually paid a $150,000 settlement (Cite: EEOC v. Red Robin Gourmet Burgers).

What you need

So when can you ask employees to hide their tattoos, even ones with religious significance? When:

• you have a consistently enforced policy
• allowing exceptions to the policy would cause a hardship (such as when employees are visible to customers, or co-workers complain about body art that’s offensive), or
• safety is an issue.

Finally, with all religious accommodation requests, it’s smart to take them seriously and treat all employees’ beliefs as legitimate — yes, even members of the Church of Body Modification get legal protection.

Tags: dress codes, religious discrimination, tattoos