The State : Religious Job Bias Upheld

The state Fair Employment and Housing Commission voted 4 to 2 in San Francisco not to repeal a state regulation that allows religious employers to discriminate on religious grounds in the hiring and firing of workers in non-religious jobs. The law generally prohibits bias in employment on the basis of race, color, religious creed, sex, physical handicap and other factors, but exempts religious institutions. Most all religious groups had opposed the change proposed by the state agency, which would have restricted the exemption to jobs requiring spiritual expertise. But civil rights organizations had argued that a blanket religious exemption should not shield spiritual groups from discrimination laws in jobs unrelated to religion, such as bus driving, janitorial service or working in a thrift shop or hospital.