Resources for Muslim Employees at Work
Workplace Rights
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for enforcing Federal laws against employee discrimination. Most employers with at least 15 employees, most labor unions and employment agencies are covered by EEOC laws.
Employers may not make employment decisions-including hiring, firing, or promoting-on the basis of national origin or religion under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Learn more about the law and your rights as an employee below:
Friday Prayer Services:
Many Federal employees have established active Friday services within their offices to accommodate Muslim colleagues and avoid excessive disruptions during the work day.
To help establish an employee resource group to build community and organize communal services at your Federal agency, learn more here, or find established prayer services and mosques near your DC office here.
Employee Resource Groups
Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) [also known as Affinity Groups or VEOs] are a way to cultivate a supportive, welcoming, inclusive and equitable work environment in your Federal Department or public institution.
They serve as a critical link between employees and senior management, connecting a diverse array of backgrounds, beliefs, and experiences to each Department’s diversity managers, Human Capital staff, and key decision-makers. They support the personal growth and professional development of their members and they help develop programs and learning opportunities not only for themselves but for the rest of the workforce.
ERGs have the pulse of their community and their constituents and work with management to develop and execute recommendations to solve mission-related problems before they become large-scale issues.
Muslim public service professionals, and Federal government employees in particular, are forming a growing number of such groups to foster community, support professional networking and career development, contributing to their Department’s diversity and inclusion objectives, and increasing employee morale, retention and productivity.
MAPS supports these efforts and aims to serve as a catalyst, resource, and force multiplier for formal organizational representation of Muslim public servants. Learn more about the goals of ERGs, the formation process or start a MAPS chapter at your Department here.
Additional external resources on the ERG community and trends are shared below:
Diversity and Inclusion
Achieving diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace is a growing concern across the private and public sectors. While the noble objectives of an inclusive and conducive work environment have increasingly appeared on corporate and government human capital agendas, the success of current approaches have often been mixed.
While the discourse is active among the public service professional and the ERG community, recent studies and articles are included below as a resource and starting point for charting a successful path forward.
