Guidelines welcome additions to offices

President Clinton deserves praise for issuing guidelines last week that clarify the place of religion in the workplace. While the regulations apply only to federal employees, they could and should become models for other workplaces.

Under the guidelines, employees may wear religious emblems, such as crosses and medals; talk openly about what religion means to them; and even invite co-workers to join their faith. The logic behind the rules is simple: If workers can gossip over lunch or coffee about politics or sports, they can't be stopped from discussing God, Scripture and prayer.

There are some reasonable limits to the new freedoms given to religious employees. For example, a receptionist can't post a huge poster of Christ or Mohammed behind his or her desk as if to imply that the office were declaring itself Christian or Muslim. And those employees who supervise others must be careful not to give the impression that a failure to talk about religion could result in penalties, such as loss of pay or a lessened chance of promotion.

Included in the new guidelines are some practical examples of practices permitted or barred by the rules:

* ``An employee may keep a Bible or Koran on her private desk and read it during breaks. An agency may restrict all posters, or posters of a certain size, in private work areas, or require that such posters be displayed facing the employee, and not on common walls; but the employer typically cannot single out religious or anti-religious posters for harsher or preferential treatment.'

* The display of such religious items as crosses in places of public access may be restricted if it might be reasonably construed as representing ``government endorsement of religion.'

* ``Federal employees may wear personal religious jewelry absent special circumstances -- such as safety concerns -- that might require a ban on all similar non-religious jewelry.'

* ``In their private time, employees may discuss religion with willing co-workers in public spaces to the same extent as they may discuss other subjects, so long as the public would reasonably understand the religious expression to be that of the employees acting in their personal capacity.'

* ``Employees are permitted to engage in religious expression directed at fellow employees' and may even invite or try to persuade fellow employees to attend their place of worship or join their religion. ``But employees must refrain from such expression when a fellow employee asks that it stop or otherwise demonstrates that it is unwelcome.'

(08-21-97) [[In-content Ad]]