Religious Accommodation Requests—Deal Delicately, But Deal

Requests for accommodation on religious grounds are often tricky—What's a belief? What's a religion?—but they're going to come up and you've got to deal with them.

The following are some suggestions to help employers reduce the risk they will be accused of refusing to accommodate a sincerely held religious belief that affects an employee at work.

Tell your employees you will make reasonable efforts to accommodate their beliefs.
Provide specific instructions in your handbook for employees to use when asking for an accommodation.
Train your managers on how to handle requests for religious accommodation, including using an interactive process and considering alternatives to the particular accommodation requested if it would pose an undue hardship.
Don't assume you know what is and is not a religious belief or practice. (Not long ago, there was a plaintiff who argued that she belonged to the Church of Body Modification, meaning she had to wear multiple piercings; the court accepted that, even though she lost her case for other reasons. Another plaintiff argued that she wore a nose ring to conform to her Nuwaubian religion, but the jury didn't buy it.)
Stay away from narrow or inflexible requirements for information to determine whether an accommodation is needed for a religious belief or practice.
Consider adopting flexible leave and scheduling policies.
Carefully evaluate requests for exceptions to dress and grooming rules for religious reasons.
Allow workplace facilities to be used in the same manner for religious and nonreligious activities that are not related to work.
If you refuse an accommodation request, explain to the employee why it's not been granted.
Federal Law on Religious Accommodation
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits religious discrimination by employers with 15 or more employees. To be more specific, under Title VII:
It is unlawful to discharge or otherwise discriminate against or harass applicants or employees on the basis of religion.
Employers must provide reasonable accommodation for an employee's religious beliefs or practices, unless it would cause the employer an undue hardship.
Employers may not discriminate against an individual based on his or her association with a person of a particular religion. For example, it is unlawful to discriminate against an employee who is a Christian because he or she is married to a Muslim.
It is unlawful for an employer to retaliate against an individual for opposing discriminatory practices, or for filing a charge, testifying, or participating in an investigation, hearing, or other proceeding under Title VII.

Exemptions

Title VII does permit religious corporations, associations, educational institutions, or societies to hire only individuals of a particular religion to perform work connected with the organization's activities.

What Is a Religious Practice?

According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidelines, religious practices include traditional religious beliefs, moral and ethical beliefs, and beliefs (including atheism) that individuals hold "with the strength of traditional religious views."

The fact that an individual's beliefs are not espoused by any religious group or are not accepted by the religious group to which the individual professes to belong will not determine whether the belief is a religious belief.

However, beliefs are not protected merely because they are sincerely held (e.g., many individuals adhere to a vegetarian diet for purely secular reasons). According to EEOC, religion typically includes ultimate ideas about "life, purpose, and death."
When Is Reasonable Accommodation Required?

Employers are required to reasonably accommodate religious practices unless accommodation would cause an "undue hardship" on the conduct of business.

Undue hardship may be claimed by an employer in situations where accommodating an employee's religious practices would require more than ordinary administrative costs. Undue hardship also may be shown if changing a bona fide seniority system to accommodate one employee's religious practices denies another employee the job or shift preference guaranteed by the seniority system.

Factors to be considered in determining whether an accommodation is an undue hardship include:

the size and nature of the business
the type and cost of the accommodation required
notice of the requested accommodation
An assumption that many more people with the same religious practices as the person being accommodated may also need accommodation is not evidence of undue hardship.
Options for reasonable accommodation include:
flexible arrival and departure times
floating or optional holidays
flexible work breaks
use of lunch time in exchange for early departure
staggered work hours
permitting an employee to make up time lost due to the observance of religious practices

Alternatives for accommodation might also include substituting workers, exchanging employee hours, planning flexible work schedules, transferring employees, and changing job assignments.

In order to facilitate accommodation, an employer should consider publicizing its policies regarding accommodation and voluntary substitution; promoting an atmosphere in which such substitutions are favorably regarded; or providing a central file, bulletin board, or other means for matching voluntary substitutes with positions for which substitutes are needed.

Today's HR Daily Advisor Tip: Attorney Regina Petty, Petty is with the San Diego office of law firm Fisher & Phillips, Summarized & edited or use in this blog.

The Whitford Group, TheWhitfordGroup@aol.com, 704 298-2115