New York law to ensure freedom to Sikhs employees

New York, Aug 31 (PTI) Sikhs in the US will be allowed to
wear turbans and grow beards in federal agencies like the
police department and transit authority after New York Mayor
Michael Bloomberg Wednesday signed into law a bill that will
ensure freedom for employees to practice religious beliefs at
workplace.
The 'Workplace Religious Freedom' bill was initiated by
civil rights group Sikh Coalition and sponsored by Queens
Democrat Council member Mark Weprin.
In signing the law, Bloomberg said employers must make a
"reasonable accommodation" for an employee's religious
practices unless following such practises creates an "undue
hardship."
The undue hardship is now defined as requiring
"significant expense or difficulty."
"This bill sends the message that people should not have
to choose between serving our city and adhering to their
religious beliefs. All Americans should receive the full
embrace of our country’s constitutional freedoms," Weprin
said.
Sikh Coalition's programme director and co-founder
Amardeep Singh said the law would ensure that religious
minorities like Sikhs and Muslims in the US are not
discriminated against by their employers for practising their
religion.
"The law is a major step in ensuring Sikhs and other
religious minorities are not unfairly excluded from jobs for
which they are otherwise qualified," Singh told PTI.
He said a few Sikhs were told by the New York Police
Department (NYPD) that they could not wear their turbans as
traffic agents.
Similarly, Sikhs and Muslim workers at the Metropolitan
Transit Authority (MTA) were forced to brand their religious
headwear with an MTA logo.