Employer says I MUST wear pants (not long skirts)

There are no federal laws that address workplace dress codes, but there are laws protecting individuals from religious discrimination. I am not a legal professional, but it appears as though your employer should allow you to wear skirt scrubs unless their reasoning is for safety reasons or legal requirements.

In order to avoid religious discrimination, employers sometimes need to accommodate employees when it comes to dress codes. In order to receive a reasonable accommodation from an employer, the employee must have a sincerely held religious belief and put the employer on notice that the religious belief conflicts with a workplace rule. Both parties then engage each other in an attempt to find a just solution, unless an accommodation would create an undue hardship for the employer. An undue hardship is anything more than a minimal cost.

If your employer refuses to accommodate your religious beliefs, you should contact a lawyer to see if you have a possible lawsuit or you can file a discrimination charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (removed)

Title VII and most of the state and municipal fair employment practices analogues impose upon an employer the obligation of not engaging in disparate treatment or other discrimination based on religion. These statutes also impose the corollary obligation upon an employer to accommodate an employee’s religious practices if said practices will not substantially interfere with the company’s operations.

If you explained that your Pentecostal religious faith compelled you to wear long dresses and skirts, then your employer would normally have to accommodate you unless such a form of dress substantially interfered with the company’s operations. It is difficult to fathom how your wearing of a skirt objectively constitute an undue hardship for an x-ray department.

If you have already informed your employer of your faith and made your request for accomodation, it is incumbent on the employer to grant this accommodation absent a significant business reason not to do so. (For instance, is there a possiblity of a long dress or skirt getting snagged on heavy machinery?) If an objective, substantial business reason does not exist, then it is difficult to perceive how your employer can justify its position here in light of its affirmative obligation to accommodate a worker’s reasonable religious practice.

Hopefully, you will not have to choose between adhering to this faith-inspired practice and keeping your job. If, however, your employer compells you to wear pants to keep your employment (irrespective of whether you relent in your position or not), you should contact the nearest office of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) to file an administrative complaint against your employer.