Bombay High Court ruling mirrors United States law on employment

WASHINGTON: Bombay high court's ruling on Tuesday that no one in India can be compelled to declare his religion in his employment application or for any government business appears a step towards the American practice where a person is not required to declare her gender, marital status, age, nationality or religion.

Workplace hiring in the United States is underscored by the Equal Employment Opportunity Law, which goes back to the Kennedy years and the Civil Rights movement. The law protects workplace discrimination on the basis of an individual's race, color, national origin (as long as they have required work permit), religion, sex, age, disability, etc.

At various times, the law has been amended and expanded to afford even greater protection to workers, including discrimination now against one's genetic information, and retaliation for reporting, participating in, and/or opposing a discrimiNatory practice. In 2011, the law expanded to include protection against "sex-stereotyping" of lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals, and in 2012 it was expanded some more to protect transgenders.

The original law came under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and taking into account all the subsequent amendments, it now protects applicants and employees from discrimination in hiring, promotion, discharge, pay, fringe benefits, job training, classification, referral, and other aspects of employment, on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex (including pregnancy), or national origin.

Religious discrimination includes failing to reasonably accommodate an employee's religious practices where the accommodation does not impose undue hardship (for example, turbans of Sikhs, hijabs of Muslims or Ramzan fasting). Disability discrimination includes "not making reasonable accommodation to the known physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified individual with a disability who is an applicant or employee, barring undue hardship."

One of the newer amendments is fascinating. The 2008 Genetic Information Non-discrimination Act of 2008 protects applicants and employees by restricting employers' acquisition of genetic information and strictly limiting disclosure of genetic information. Genetic information includes information about genetic tests of applicants, employees, or their family members; the manifestation of diseases or disorders in family members (family medical history); and requests for or receipt of genetic services by applicants, employees, or their family members.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ( EEOC) is the federal agency that oversees the law. It can investigate, adjudicate, and mediate complaints brought to it by victims; it is also empowered to file discrimination suits against employers on behalf of alleged victims. There are thousands of cases each year.