To send an employee to a client even though she refuses because of her religion?

[GelatinousDynamo]

I have a new employee in my team, she is a devout Muslim. She's been with us since January and there were no issues so far, she's getting along well with everyone and her performance was fine. I sent her an email on Friday afternoon to say that our client has now (finally) prepared all necessary documents and that she should go there and go over everything with them one day next week. She wrote me back today that she can't do that because only men work in the department and she can't spend the day alone with strange men (because of her religion).

AIBU to insist that she does her job and goes there or would that be religious discrimination? She shares an office with a male colleague and has never complained about it. She's the first devout Muslim I've ever had on my team and I honestly have no experience at all with such issues. She's the only one who has the necessary experience and isn't already scheduled elsewhere.

By then you are adding extra workload on to the other female surely? What is she then has to work extra hours to do her actual work that should have been doing during the time she was accompanying the other lady.

can you go with her? I’d do that.

I think it's already been stated that she can't.

Are there reasonable adjustments that could be made without significant cost or loss of profitable business which would accommodate her needs? Is there a way the job can be done just as well which don't cause her problems?

Discrimination laws require employers to make reasonable adjustments but adjustments which are overly burdensome or costly are not reasonable, and the job must still actually get done. If she can't do the job that needs doing then it's not discriminatory to say she can't have the job. You'll need to be careful to explore all options for whether appropriate reasonable adjustments can be made and document everything very carefully as you could end up in a tribunal situation having to show that you considered all the practical and affordable options.

Sending a second staff member to chaperone her in these situations could be either reasonable or unreasonable depending on the additional cost/lost productivity in comparison.

I would not assume that because someone at interview wore hijab and dressed conservatively that they could not visit an office that only employed men, or be alone in a room with a man. In fact, thinking of the last colleague I had who was a practicing Muslim she would often be alone in the office with a male colleague.

"These people"

You mean Muslims?

Exactly this. And from my experience of over 50 years working in a range of offices, I could count on the fingers of one hand how many of them involved me being the only female in an office full of men. I don’t think the woman should necessarily have expected that she would find herself in a situation where she was alone with strange men - most offices would surely be likely to include one or more women? It’s not as if the woman has a choice in saying that she can’t be alone with a group of men she’s not related to - if she follows her religion correctly, she isn’t allowed to.

I think this could also be discriminatory, as the Muslim colleague I've just mentioned wouldn't have got the job if people assumed she couldn't be alone in the office with men.

What rubbish. Muslims are not one big monolith. My religious hijabi Muslim female friend does a physical male dominated hobby which requires men to touch her to teach her the correct techniques. Some Other Muslim women would not do that hobby. There are different views on what is haram.

This woman in the OP has taken a job in a male dominated field and deliberately concealed that her religion would be a barrier to her performing her role.

OP, in future I would take the advice of pp and ask interviewees if there is any reason they cannot perform all the duties required.

BTW there was an employment case a Christian woman lost where she would not work Sundays in a care job. I felt sorry for her because she had been honest at her interview snd said she would not work Sundays and the manager agreed to this. Unfortunately HR did not and she was dismissed. She took it to tribunal and lost.

In the short term can you go with her again for the meeting this week since it’s too short notice for someone else to go in her place?

At the same time you need to get HR to get solid legal advice on this- if she can’t do the job she was employed to do then she isn’t suitable for the job going forward. However if there are others in the company who do the same job then going forward you’ll need to allocate the team to meetings depending on which ones she can’t do rather than best fit which isn’t ideal but if this is the reason she left her previous job then she’ll more than likely leave you soon too for the same reason if she’s not getting the ‘big’ jobs.
May be your only option if she can’t be dismissed due to risk of discrimination

Absolutely! It’s just disgraceful people are promoting such open prejudice! And that these people are presumably thinking they are being progressive and inclusive by judging people on prejudiced stereotypes!

There is huge diversity of belief in Islam, but these progressives think is just one big Muslim club and they are all the same!

I'd ask her what would she recommend as the best solution to that.

Presumably shes at a reasonable level of professional standing if she's the only one with those skills, so it won't be the first time she has had to sort this sort of thing.

Off the top of my head, sending a more junior female colleague with her; sending the man she shares an office with with her or asking the client to come to you could all be good solutions here.

Because he’s autistic and rigid thinking I assume. Because of his disability he’s possibly wedded to that particular routine/seat and would be unable to understand someone else’s need for it to vary. If other things were going badly that day it might result in a meltdown. Autistic burnout is cumulative and due to everyday stuff like this is real. It can impact on access to education and work. It’s a nightmare for families constantly having to advocate on behalf of someone who can’t do it themselves and gets into confrontation all the time. Kids with SEN are most likely to be excluded from school for stuff like this. Costly for them, their families and then the state when they end up picking up the tab for care when they start refusing to go out of the house at all because their needs arent met and the confrontations are scary - calling the police more common than you’d think. I’m not exaggerating. Welcome to my world. I hope that explanation is sufficient but if you want to know more start a thread on SEN Children and other mumsnetters can provide info. It’s not sexism or Islamophobia. Let’s not de-rail the thread!

Frame the problem differently and see if your feeling changes. If she said she was a victim of sexual abuse and therefore could not be alone with strange men what would you do? I dont have much time for religion but would try and be accomodating. But in both these cases if the job required it then you may be justified in saying we cannot make a reasonable adjustment here.

Just this once could you invite the client to your office, offer them lunch, she could go through the papers there with them and yourself so you could watch how she gets on too and be there to answer any questions. Afterwards you need to discuss options with her that are acceptable and workable to both sides.

Because a religious rule that thinks any woman who sits next to a man will somehow be disgraced is sexist and regressive?

If you can legally, then give her the sack OP. She has only been with you 2 months and she's started to pull this stunt . God knows where it will end .
I worked with many devout Muslim ladies in the NHS and they all worked with men .

as an employee i would expect my employer to not discriminate my religious beliefs, tbh there shouldn’t be a question about it. it’s well known that muslim women wouldn’t go into a male dominated space (regardless of some muslim women that don’t adhere to this). i don’t believe you’ve exhausted all the options to accommodate her beliefs, it’s quite disappointing really. even if she does go you’ll be making them quite uncomfortable…

How on earth is the OP supposed to understand one persons very strict interpretation of a religion, when someone else of the same religion could have a totally different interpretation?

It is for the employee to make it clear what they can/cannot do and whether they can actually meet the job description, not for the OP to assume.

Send somebody else. Then just fail her after probation. Easiest way.

She shares her office with a male colleague and has no problems shaking hands with men... So this sort of came out of nowhere. Might be because that office has a glass wall so they're not technically alone? I have no idea, just guessing here.

We're not a huge company, so this is all a bit new to me. We've had to deal with Muslim men who wouldn't accept female managers before, but this is more complicated than that.

But this thread has certainly helped me to get it out of my system and get some perspective, so thank you everyone.

Op

do you value her? Would her leaving be a loss?

is she alone with this man in the office?

She was the best candidate to a job, not 75% of it. The minute she only wanted to do 75% then she is not the best person for the job. Gender equality overrides religion.

Small companies can be crippled by unreasonable requests like this. I personally would take umbrage with any employer who expected me to cover for a colleague on these grounds.

Gawd help us if there are any religions that prohibit work ....