Last month, a federal jury in New York unanimously awarded $5.1 million to employees who claimed they suffered religious discrimination and harassment by their former employer.

Their employer, United Heath Programs, became concerned about the deterioration of the corporate culture, so the company brought in the CEO’s aunt, Denali Jordan, and paid her $330,000 a year to be what was described as a “spiritual advisor” to employees.

Jordan had been the founder of the Onionhead and Harnessing Happiness programs, which were described as “multi-purpose conflict resolution” tools.

Jordan said her purpose at United Heath Programs was to create more harmony in the workplace. She held regular meetings and workshops with employees, attendance at which employees described as mandatory.

The plaintiffs claimed that Jordan forced them to participate in discussions about God, spirituality, demons, satan, divine destinies, purity, blessings and miracles.

To prevail, the employees had to demonstrate that the Onionhead and Harnessing Happiness programs were religious in nature, a fact that was denied by the defendants.

Prior to trial, the U.S. District Court determined that Onionhead constituted a “religion” covered under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

The court cited the broadly applied definition of “religion” in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s guidelines in concluding that the practices met the definition of religion, noting “religious beliefs need not be acceptable, logical, consistent or comprehensive in nature.”

The court held, “The chants and prayers, mentions of God, transcendence, and souls, and the strong emphasis on spirituality very closely resemble the 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous program” found by prior courts to be religious.

Specifically, employees were told or required to:

• burn candles and incense to “cleanse the workplace” if Jordan felt there were evil spirits;

• not use overhead lighting to prevent demons from entering the workplace through the lights;

• engage in chanting and prayer in the workplace;

• listen to prayers being read from a set of cards referred to as Universal Truth Cards; and

• hold hands, hug, kiss and express love to Jordan and the CEO.

One employee said “we would have to sit there and hold hands and close our eyes and [Jordan would] chant and she would…pray to these spirits, whoever they were, to keep us safe…”

Employees also were required to participate in a spa weekend, described by Jordan as a “spiritual enlightenment.”

During the weekend, Jordan allegedly led chanting and discussions of religious and spiritual matters.

An employee said “at the end of the meeting we all had to hold hands in a circle. We had to lift up our hands three times and chant love, love, love” and, “Everybody had to hug and kiss as usual.”

The plaintiffs said that they felt “uncomfortable,” believing the practices were inappropriate for an office, and were religious in nature.

One employee said she was terminated after she expressed concern to coworkers about Jordan’s preaching and that she felt it was a cult, after Jordan told her to leave her husband to cure her headache.

This case provides much insight for employers.

Employees are entitled to reasonable accommodations for religious beliefs. However, they are not entitled to proselytize at work, nor should management foist its religious beliefs on employees.

Also, management should not require that employees participate in religious or spiritual events.

In addition, the behaviors of making employees express love, hug, kiss and share personal information all violate the basic tenants of appropriate workplace expectations.