Hartford, USA - Connecticut lawmakers are considering a bill that would bar companies from holding mandatory employee meetings where religious or political ideas are discussed. Backers say the legislation could restrict companies' use of corporate chaplains as part of employee support programs.
The AFL-CIO is using the Connecticut bill as a model for similar legislation in other states, which proponents say is needed to keep employers from proselytizing at work. Workers who believe they've been disciplined for refusing to attend meetings intended as a platform for management's views could sue to overturn the punishment.
Rep. Kevin Ryan, a Democrat who is shepherding the bill through the state House of Representatives, said the legislation is needed, "especially with all the diversity of religions out there. It could be offensive to listen to why you should practice a different religion."
Business groups oppose the legislation, contending its language is too broad.
"When talking about political activity, it would prohibit us from talking to employees about government contracts and actions at the state, federal and local levels," said Bonnie Stewart, lobbyist for the Connecticut Business and Industry Association.
Connecticut lawmakers have fielded few complaints about religious coercion at work, but backers of so-called "captive audience" laws are looking to expand their efforts to other states as well, said Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute in Princeton, N.J. So far, legislation in Hawaii has failed to move out of committee and a bill in Colorado has yet to find a Senate sponsor.
Maltby said the law is needed to rein in employers who impose their religious beliefs at the workplace, including the use of corporate chaplains, he said.
"Their job is to convert the unconverted," said Maltby, whose organization was founded in 2000 by former workplace rights advocates from the American Civil Liberties Union.
Gil Stricklin, founder and president of Marketplace Ministries Inc. in Dallas, which employs more than 1,700 chaplains, said his company does not evangelize. It offers employee services including onsite visits, 24-hour crisis intervention and personal counseling on family and other issues for 300 companies in 38 states.
On the Marketplace Ministries Web site, the company lists qualities it seeks in applicants, including chaplain candidates who have "served Christ for many, many years" and have been "longtime, victorious Christian(s)." However, Stricklin said he also employs Roman Catholic priests, rabbis and a Buddhist monk and will provide a representative of any religious faith at the request of an employee.
"We're not there to proselytize," he said. "I don't take my faith to harass you or hurt you or make you feel inferior."
The bill includes language saying it would not restrict voluntary, casual conversation among employees or between an employer or employee. It would also not apply to religious or political organizations conducting meetings with workers as part of their regular business.
Lori Pelletier, secretary-treasurer of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, said Connecticut's legislation would give workers "freedom in the workplace."
But Roger Vann, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, said that although his organization "understands the spirit" of the proposed legislation, he would prefer a different approach. If an employer requires a worker to attend a meeting where the boss speaks against the union, for example, management should be required to provide equal time, he said.
"We believe strongly that the answer to objectionable speech is not less speech but more speech," Vann said.
Ballie Lumber Co. of Hamburg, N.Y., is one of hundreds of companies that pay chaplains to work with their employees. Company spokeswoman Jill Meyer said the program is voluntary.
"Each chaplain comes in once a week, makes the rounds to people and says, 'Hi,' to them," she said. "If people want to talk to them, that's fine. If not, that's fine, too."
The chaplains comforted Ballie employee Kris Woltz after her husband died in 2003 from cancer.
"It was a hard time going through everything and wondering what the outcome would be," said Woltz, who said she's never been ordered to talk to a chaplain. "The chaplains were wonderful. They just went out of their way."