The recent controversy over whether a local council should be allowed to hold prayers during official proceedings only serves to underline just what a potentially tricky issue religion in the workplace can be.
Much of the wrangling around just what staff can and cannot do, and what they are entitled to, rests with HR. But it is often facilities management that is left translating policies into action and dealing with requests from individuals or contractors.
The most likely exposure for most FMs to religious observance in the workplace is in the form of rooms set aside for prayer or contemplation by employees. Altaf Lorgat is currently area facilities manager at Serco, working at Lowdham Grange and Dovegate prisons. Until recently, he was FM with Office Depot, where he led initiatives to install such rooms in new and existing buildings.
Such ‘quiet rooms’ can be used by people of any faith — or none at all — but tend to be most heavily used by Muslims, he says, who should pray five times a day. The exact timings depend on when the sun sets, he says, but in the winter months, in particular, it is inevitable that some prayers would need to be said during the working day.
The rooms themselves only need to be plain, says Lorgat, with space for people to roll out a prayer mat in a position that is facing Mecca. “Muslims will take their shoes off so a shoe rack might be advisable,” he says. “I would also recommend putting a couple of chairs in there because you may get certain individuals from the Christian faith who want to go in there to contemplate or read the Bible.”
Other factors to consider are a curtain to divide the room into segments — in the Muslim faith men and women cannot pray together — while ensuring there are adequate facilities for performing absolution is also important. “The challenge for any FM is that if you don’t have absolution facilities, prayers can’t be said in the Muslim faith,” says Lorgat, himself a practising Muslim.
“You tend to find Muslims hogging the disabled toilets. In the Muslim faith you have to wash your face, your arms and your feet up to your ankles, which means taking your shoes and socks off and putting your feet in the washbasin, which leaves pools of water next to the sink.” Making a mop available so people can clear up any mess would help here, he says, while another alternative would be to include a small sink in the prayer room itself.
Neils Hesse is building manager at Prudential Corporate Property and oversaw the introduction of a ‘contemplation room’ five years ago at the company’s main office after it became clear there was a demand there, again, mainly from Muslims. He, too, says the room is low-maintenance, although has encountered issues where people have tried to use it for other purposes.
“It’s just an empty room with two chairs so the only thing we do is replace the light bulbs and make sure the carpets are fine and repaint it as part of our redecoration schedule for the year,” he says. “Some people have tried to use it to bring in a beauty therapist or a masseuse, but we want to keep it purely for prayers or contemplation, so no exercise or yoga or anything like that.” There have been occasions where the room has been wanted by different people at the same time, he adds, but the room runs on a strict first-come-first-served basis and clashes have been rare.
The provision of such rooms, though, tends to be confined to large organisations, suggests Craig Shepheard, managing director at FM Expert. He estimates only around 1 per cent of his clients have such a facility, although there are requirements for such rooms or even chapels in more customer-facing environments such as hospitals.
“The biggest issue is probably whether you could free up space that is being used for office space to make one if someone wanted it,” he says. “The easiest way to do it would be when you move into a new property or during a refit. But, at the moment, a lot of clients are re-evaluating their real estate and wondering if they need as many buildings.”
FM services company Servest is another business that has seen the need to create quiet rooms, for use by its own staff or contractors on its distribution sites. “They’re in a quiet area of the building where staff can use them as and when they need,” says Vince Treadgold, divisional director at Servest. “There is quite a call for it. Usually the case for facilities like that is very well supported by the workforce.”
Another area where FM could have exposure to different requirements on the grounds of religion is in the staff canteen or when bringing in food from external suppliers. Muslims are only able to eat halal meat, which has been slaughtered in a certain way, and are unable to eat pork, says Lorgat, while Jews are only able to eat kosher meat. Many Hindus, meanwhile, are vegetarian, along with a sizeable minority of any employee base.
The attention to detail organisations pay to the issue of halal and kosher food varies, says Denise Keating, chief executive of the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion (ENEI). “Most organisations are able to say if something is halal or kosher and separate the food. But they do need to give the assurances that it’s been prepared and cooked in the right way,” she says. “It’s probably worth going to a specialist supplier and buying the food in rather than doing it yourself.”
In practice, most people with specific religious dietary requirements will steer clear of any meat option in a work canteen or at an event, says Lorgat. However, there are efforts FM should make to ensure they are at least able to eat vegetarian food. “The biggest education for catering staff is to ensure they don’t use the same tongs for a sausage and then for cheese on toast,” he says.
Other issues for FMs to consider here would be provisions for those who choose to bring in their own food to store and heat it separately to other users, says Amanda Jones, partner and head of the employment department at law firm Maclay Murray & Spens.
FM managers could also face issues with their own team members regarding time off at certain points during the week or requests to operate shift patterns around religious festivals. Many organisations will allow Muslims to take an extended lunch break to attend Friday prayers in a local mosque, says Lorgat, which staff can then make up throughout the week.
The Muslim faith also has two major holidays — known as Eids — a year, while Hindus are likely to want time off around Diwali. Christmas, too, can be an issue, with most people wanting to take time off, points out Shepherd.
Managers should familiarise themselves with the basics of all the major religions to help plan around likely requests for leave and identify any occasions where individuals may be making unreasonable requests, suggests Lorgat. “In my last organisation, people were saying they couldn’t work certain hours in Ramadan because they needed to pray,” he recalls. “I found out what was happening and supported the manager because they were trying to pull the wool over his eyes.
“It’s important for managers to be equipped with basic knowledge or to have a point of contact in a local Mosque to mitigate any question in their mind. I have contacts in other religions and if I don’t know something I’ll ask them and find out about it.”
Ultimately, the advice for those in FM is to apply common sense and not to be afraid to involve HR when in doubt as to which requests can and cannot be granted. “Some organisations set up multi-faith networks where a number of faiths get together and that helps people understand each other’s religions and what their needs might be,” says Keating at ENEI. “It’s really about talking to your people and understanding what is important to them, and then seeing if there’s a way of accommodating it
