A: A faith-based school is permitted to "discriminate" on the basis of religion—but you should indicate this in your EEO statement. The discrepancy between your practice and your EEO statement can be questioned—and, at the very least, lead to hard feelings and misunderstandings.
Our recommendation is that you alter your EEO statement to read:
Our school believes that each individual is entitled to equal employment opportunity without regard to race, color, gender, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status (fill in any state-covered protected classes) … or any other characteristic protected under federal, state, or local anti-discrimination laws.
You will notice that we've deleted the term "religion" from the list of protected classes. You should add the following note to your statement:
Note: As a faith-based institution, we reserve the right to use religion as a criteria in hiring decisions, as permitted by law.
If the school requires a specific "faith or doctrine statement," it is helpful if this is noted in your employment advertising as well.
Once a month, ISM's Human Resources Consultant Michael Brisciana will answer an HR-related question submitted by one of our readers. To ask Michael a question to be addressed in future e-letters, please click here.
